TAGARA
Tagara consists of predominantly dried rhizome, stolon and small portion of root of Valeriana wallichii DC, (Fam.Valerianacem): a hairy perennial herb, growing in temperate Himalayas from Kashmir to Bhutan and Khasia hiils upto an altitude of 3,000 m, rhizomes dug in autumn, well washed with water and dried.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Kalanusari, Kalanusarika, Nata
Assamese : Tagar
Bengali : Tagar Paduka
English : Indian Valerian
Gujrati : Tagar Ganthoda, Tagar Gantho, Ghodawaj
Hindi : Mushkbala, Sugandhabala
Kannada : Mandibattal, Mandyavanthu, Mandibattalu, Tagar
Kashmiri : Bala, Mushkbala
Malayalam : Thakaram
Marathi : Tagar, Ganthode
Oriya : Tagarapaduka, Jalashiuli
Punjabi : Mushkobala, Sugandhbala
Tamil : Tagarai
Telugu : Grandhi Tagaramu
Urdu : Tagar
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Rhizome, of about 4-8 cm long and 4-10 mm thick pieces, dull yellowish-brow. sub-cylindrica1 and dorsiventrally somewhat flattened, rough, slightly curved and unbranched, upper surface marked with raised encircling leaf scars, under surface bearing numerous, small, circular prominent, root scars and a few stout rootlets, crown bearing remains of mrial stems with scale leaves, fracture short and horny, stolon connecting rhizomes stout, 1-5 mm long and 2-4 mm thick, yellowish-grey in colour, longitudinally wrinkled, usually with nodes and internodes and bearing adventitious roots, occasionally thin stolons 1-2 mm thick, root, yellowish-brown, 3-5 cm long and 1 mm thick, odour, strong and reminiscent of isovaleric acid, taste, bitter and somewhat camphoraceous.
b) Microscopic
Rhizome – transverse section of rhizome shows cork, consisting of 4-14 layers of lignified, cells occasionally containing oil globules, cortex parenchymatous containing numerous starch grain oil globules and yellowish-brown substance, outer 2 or 3 layers of cortex, collenchymatous occasional root traces appear as paler strands, endodermis single layered, pericycle, pareachymatous .and within it 12-18 collateral vascular bundles, separated by dark medullary ray present, pith large, parenchymatous, lacunar, containing starch grams, starch occurs as single or occasional compound grains of two components, individual grains being 7-30 n mostly, 10-25 n in diameter calcium oxalate crystals absent.
Stolon–transverse section of stolon shows cork, consisting of 2-5 layers, cortex upto 25 layers, pareachymatous, followed by 20 collateral vascular bundles, which in young stolons separated by cellulosic parenchymatous medullary rays and in older stolons become lignified, pith wide and lacunar, root traces absent.
Root– transverse section of root shows small, central parenchymatous pith, surroundod by tetrach to polyarch xylem and a wide parenchymatous bark.
IDENTITY, PURITY AND STRENGTH
Foreign matter Not more than 2 per cent, Appendix 2.2.2.
Total Ash Not more than 12 per cent, Appendix 2.2.3.
Acid-insoluble ash Not more than 10 per cent, Appendix 2.2.4.
Alcohol-soluble extractive Not less than 30 per cent, Appendix 2.2.6.
Water-soluble extractive Not less than 19 per cent, Appendix 2.2.7.
CONSTITUENTS – Essential oil.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Katu, Tikta, Kasaya
Guna : Laghu, Snigdha
Virya : Usna
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : Visaghna, Tridosahara, Raktadosahara, Manasadoshara.
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Dhanvantara Taila, Mahanarayana Taila, Devadarvadyarisa, Jatiphaladi Curna
THERAPEUTIC USES – Netraroga, Apasmara, Unmada, Siroroga
DOSE – 1-3 g of the drug in powder form.
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