Calotropis procera (Ait.) Ait. F
Apple of Sodom !!
COMMON NAME : apple of Sodom, Sodom apple, mudar, or osher or stabragh, Aak, Ak, Akada, Alarka and many more.
BOTANICAL NAME : Calotropis procera (Ait.) Ait. F.
FAMILY : Asclepiadaceae
HABITAT AND HABIT : Found mostly in semi-arid and arid inland areas, as well as in the drier parts of tropical and sub-tropical regions. A weed of disturbed sites, roadsides, waste areas, near inland watercourses, coastal sand dunes, grasslands, open woodlands and pastures. Native of Hindustan, but widely naturalized in the East and West Indies and Ceylon.
Calotropis is found from sea level up to an altitude of 1300 m in semi-arid conditions (150 to 1000 mm annual rainfall) on sandy soils. However, it can withstand a wide range of soil textures. It is tolerant of soil salinity and of beach front salt spray. On excessively drained soils, it can withstand up to 2000 mm annual rainfall. It quickly becomes established in open habitats with little competition, along degraded roadsides, lagoon edges and in overgrazed native pastures and rangelands (Orwa et al., 2009). When calotropis is damaged, it readily develops suckers from the roots (Parsons et al., 2001). Calotropis seeds are spread by wind and animals and may be transported long distances in flood waters (Parsons et al., 2001).
DISTRIBUTION :
>>Origin
Native to northern Africa (i.e. Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone), the Arabian Peninsula (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen), the Middle East (i.e. Iran, Israel, Jordan) and southern Asia (i.e. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam).
>>Naturalised Distribution
This species is widespread in the drier northern parts of Australia. It is mostly found in northern Queensland, north-western Western Australia and in the northern parts of the Northern Territory. Also present in other parts of the Northern Territory, and recorded in South Australia and New South Wales.
It has also become naturalised in parts of Central America, northern South America, the Caribbean, south-western USA (i.e. California) and in Hawaii.
>>Distinguishing Features"
+ a large shrub with waxy stems and leaves that contain a milky sap.
+ its relatively large greyish-green leaves (5-20 cm long and 4-10 cm wide) are borne in pairs and are stem-clasping.
+ its flowers (20-30 mm across) have five petals that are white with purplish-coloured tips and a purplish crown -like centre.
+ its fruit is a large (8-12 cm long) bladdery 'pod' that is greyish-green in colour.
+ this fruit splits open at maturity to release numerous seeds, each topped with a tuft of long, white, silky hairs.
DESCRIPTION : The flowers are fragrant and are often used in making floral tassels in some mainland Southeast Asian cultures. Fibers of these plants are called madar or mader. The plant is known as aak in Ayurveda and was used in cases of cutaneous diseases, intestinal worms, cough, ascites, asthma, bronchitis, dyspepsia, paralysis, swellings, intermittent fevers, anorexia, inflammations and tumors. In large doses, Arka is known to act as a purgative and an emetic.
The milky exudation from the plant is a corrosive poison. The latex is said to have mercury-like effects on the human body, and is some times referred to as vegetable mercury and is used in place of mercury in aphrodisiacs. It is used variously but sometimes leaves are fried in oil for medicinal purposes.
Calotropis species are usually found in abandoned farmland. Cattle often stay away from the plants because of their unpleasant taste and their content of cardiac glycosides.
Root bark has a Digitalis-like effect on the heart, but was earlier used as a substitute of ipecacuanha.
They are poisonous plants; calotropin, a compound in the latex, is more toxic than strychnine. Calotropin is similar in structure to two cardiac glycosides which are responsible for the cytotoxicity of Apocynum cannabinum. Extracts from the flowers of Calotropis procera have shown strong cytotoxic activity in the patients of colorectal cancer. They are harmful to the eyes.
LEAVES : The leaves are sessile and sub-sessile, opposite, ovate, cordate at the base.
STEM : Stem is cylinderical and hairy with waxy coating that appears to be grey.
FLOWER : The flowers are about 1.5 to 2 in (3.8 to 5.1 cm) in size, with umbellate lateral cymes and are colored white to pink .The flowers (15-25 mm across) are borne in clusters, each containing 3-15 flowers, in the forks of the uppermost leaves (i.e. in axillary inflorescences). The main stalk of these flower clusters (i.e. peduncle) is 20-55 mm long and each flower has a stalk (i.e. pedicel) about 15-25 mm long. These flowers have five spreading petals (7-10 mm long and 6-10 mm wide) that are white or pinkish in colour, with much darker purple or purplish-brown tips, and a crown-like centre (i.e. corona) that is also purplish in colour. They also have five sepals (about 5 mm long and 3 mm wide) that are oval (i.e. elliptic) or egg-shaped in outline (i.e. ovate) and five stamens. Flowering occurs mostly during winter.
FRUIT : The seeds are compressed, broadly ovoid, with a tufted micropylar coma of long silky hair.
The fruit is a large (6-12 cm long and 3-7 cm wide) bladdery 'pod' (i.e. follicle) that is greyish-green in colour and rounded (i.e. sub-globose) to somewhat egg-shaped (i.e. obliquely ovoid). These fruit have thick and spongy skins which split open at maturity. Each fruit contains numerous brown, flattened seeds (about 6 mm long and 4 mm wide) that are topped with a tuft (i.e. coma) of long, white, silky hairs (35-50 mm long).
POLLINATION : Pollination is performed by bees (entomophily) by the following mechanism:
The stigmas and androeciums are fused to form a gynostegium. The pollen are enclosed in pollinia (a coherent mass of pollen grains). The pollinia are attached to an adhesive glandular disc at the stigmatic angle. When a bee lands on one of these, the disc adheres to its legs, and the pollinium is detached from the flower when the bee flies away. When the bee visits another flower, the flower is pollinated by the adhering pollinium on the bee.
IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT :
>>Calotrope (Calotropis procera) is regarded as an environmental weed in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. It thrives on poor soils, particularly where overgrazing has removed competition from native grasses, and forms dense thickets which compete with native plant species and transform the appearance of savanna plant communities. This species is culrrently listed as a priority environmental weed in three Natural Resource Management Regions and it is being actively managed by community groups in the Northern Territory.
>>The milky sap is toxic to humans and sometimes also to livestock. It can also hinder pastoralism by reducing the productivity of rangeland pastures and making mustering more difficult.
CONSTITUENTS : -A yellow bitter resin; a black acid resin; Madaralbum, a crystalline colourless substance; Madarfluavil, an ambercoloured viscid substance; and caoutchouc, and a peculiar principle which gelatinizes on being heated, called Mudarine. Lewin found a neutral principle, Calatropin, a very active poison of the digitalis type. In India the author's husband experimented with it for paper-making, the inner bark yielding a fibre stronger than Russian hemp. The acrid juice hardens into a substance like gutta-percha. It has long been used in India for abortive and suicidal purposes. Mudar root-bark is very largely used there as a treatment for elephantiasis and leprosy, and is efficacious in cases of chronic eczema, also for diarrhoea and dysentery.
USES :
Calotropis is a plant. People use the bark and root bark for medicine.
Despite serious safety concerns, calotropis is used for digestive disorders including diarrhea, constipation and stomach ulcers; for painful conditions including toothache, cramps, and joint pain; and for parasitic infections including elephantiasis and worms. Some people use calotropis for syphilis, boils, inflammation (swelling), epilepsy, hysteria, fever, muscular spasm, warts, leprosy, gout, snakebites, and cancer.
In inhalation therapy, smoke from the bark is inhaled for coughs, asthma, and to cause sweating.
How does it work?
Calotropis contains chemicals that might help thin mucous and make it easier to cough up. In studies in animals, calotropis has shown some activity against pain, inflammation, bacteria, fever, and ulcers caused by alcohol and medications such as aspirin, indomethacin (Indocin), and others.
SOURCES :
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/
>>http://www.arkive.org/
>>http://www.webmd.com/
>>http://
>>http://www.feedipedia.org/
>http://www.globinmed.com/
>>http://www.botanical.com/
>>http://
COMMON NAME : apple of Sodom, Sodom apple, mudar, or osher or stabragh, Aak, Ak, Akada, Alarka and many more.
BOTANICAL NAME : Calotropis procera (Ait.) Ait. F.
FAMILY : Asclepiadaceae
HABITAT AND HABIT : Found mostly in semi-arid and arid inland areas, as well as in the drier parts of tropical and sub-tropical regions. A weed of disturbed sites, roadsides, waste areas, near inland watercourses, coastal sand dunes, grasslands, open woodlands and pastures. Native of Hindustan, but widely naturalized in the East and West Indies and Ceylon.
Calotropis is found from sea level up to an altitude of 1300 m in semi-arid conditions (150 to 1000 mm annual rainfall) on sandy soils. However, it can withstand a wide range of soil textures. It is tolerant of soil salinity and of beach front salt spray. On excessively drained soils, it can withstand up to 2000 mm annual rainfall. It quickly becomes established in open habitats with little competition, along degraded roadsides, lagoon edges and in overgrazed native pastures and rangelands (Orwa et al., 2009). When calotropis is damaged, it readily develops suckers from the roots (Parsons et al., 2001). Calotropis seeds are spread by wind and animals and may be transported long distances in flood waters (Parsons et al., 2001).
DISTRIBUTION :
>>Origin
Native to northern Africa (i.e. Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Sierra Leone), the Arabian Peninsula (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen), the Middle East (i.e. Iran, Israel, Jordan) and southern Asia (i.e. Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam).
>>Naturalised Distribution
This species is widespread in the drier northern parts of Australia. It is mostly found in northern Queensland, north-western Western Australia and in the northern parts of the Northern Territory. Also present in other parts of the Northern Territory, and recorded in South Australia and New South Wales.
It has also become naturalised in parts of Central America, northern South America, the Caribbean, south-western USA (i.e. California) and in Hawaii.
>>Distinguishing Features"
+ a large shrub with waxy stems and leaves that contain a milky sap.
+ its relatively large greyish-green leaves (5-20 cm long and 4-10 cm wide) are borne in pairs and are stem-clasping.
+ its flowers (20-30 mm across) have five petals that are white with purplish-coloured tips and a purplish crown -like centre.
+ its fruit is a large (8-12 cm long) bladdery 'pod' that is greyish-green in colour.
+ this fruit splits open at maturity to release numerous seeds, each topped with a tuft of long, white, silky hairs.
DESCRIPTION : The flowers are fragrant and are often used in making floral tassels in some mainland Southeast Asian cultures. Fibers of these plants are called madar or mader. The plant is known as aak in Ayurveda and was used in cases of cutaneous diseases, intestinal worms, cough, ascites, asthma, bronchitis, dyspepsia, paralysis, swellings, intermittent fevers, anorexia, inflammations and tumors. In large doses, Arka is known to act as a purgative and an emetic.
The milky exudation from the plant is a corrosive poison. The latex is said to have mercury-like effects on the human body, and is some times referred to as vegetable mercury and is used in place of mercury in aphrodisiacs. It is used variously but sometimes leaves are fried in oil for medicinal purposes.
Calotropis species are usually found in abandoned farmland. Cattle often stay away from the plants because of their unpleasant taste and their content of cardiac glycosides.
Root bark has a Digitalis-like effect on the heart, but was earlier used as a substitute of ipecacuanha.
They are poisonous plants; calotropin, a compound in the latex, is more toxic than strychnine. Calotropin is similar in structure to two cardiac glycosides which are responsible for the cytotoxicity of Apocynum cannabinum. Extracts from the flowers of Calotropis procera have shown strong cytotoxic activity in the patients of colorectal cancer. They are harmful to the eyes.
LEAVES : The leaves are sessile and sub-sessile, opposite, ovate, cordate at the base.
STEM : Stem is cylinderical and hairy with waxy coating that appears to be grey.
FLOWER : The flowers are about 1.5 to 2 in (3.8 to 5.1 cm) in size, with umbellate lateral cymes and are colored white to pink .The flowers (15-25 mm across) are borne in clusters, each containing 3-15 flowers, in the forks of the uppermost leaves (i.e. in axillary inflorescences). The main stalk of these flower clusters (i.e. peduncle) is 20-55 mm long and each flower has a stalk (i.e. pedicel) about 15-25 mm long. These flowers have five spreading petals (7-10 mm long and 6-10 mm wide) that are white or pinkish in colour, with much darker purple or purplish-brown tips, and a crown-like centre (i.e. corona) that is also purplish in colour. They also have five sepals (about 5 mm long and 3 mm wide) that are oval (i.e. elliptic) or egg-shaped in outline (i.e. ovate) and five stamens. Flowering occurs mostly during winter.
FRUIT : The seeds are compressed, broadly ovoid, with a tufted micropylar coma of long silky hair.
The fruit is a large (6-12 cm long and 3-7 cm wide) bladdery 'pod' (i.e. follicle) that is greyish-green in colour and rounded (i.e. sub-globose) to somewhat egg-shaped (i.e. obliquely ovoid). These fruit have thick and spongy skins which split open at maturity. Each fruit contains numerous brown, flattened seeds (about 6 mm long and 4 mm wide) that are topped with a tuft (i.e. coma) of long, white, silky hairs (35-50 mm long).
POLLINATION : Pollination is performed by bees (entomophily) by the following mechanism:
The stigmas and androeciums are fused to form a gynostegium. The pollen are enclosed in pollinia (a coherent mass of pollen grains). The pollinia are attached to an adhesive glandular disc at the stigmatic angle. When a bee lands on one of these, the disc adheres to its legs, and the pollinium is detached from the flower when the bee flies away. When the bee visits another flower, the flower is pollinated by the adhering pollinium on the bee.
IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT :
>>Calotrope (Calotropis procera) is regarded as an environmental weed in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and Queensland. It thrives on poor soils, particularly where overgrazing has removed competition from native grasses, and forms dense thickets which compete with native plant species and transform the appearance of savanna plant communities. This species is culrrently listed as a priority environmental weed in three Natural Resource Management Regions and it is being actively managed by community groups in the Northern Territory.
>>The milky sap is toxic to humans and sometimes also to livestock. It can also hinder pastoralism by reducing the productivity of rangeland pastures and making mustering more difficult.
CONSTITUENTS : -A yellow bitter resin; a black acid resin; Madaralbum, a crystalline colourless substance; Madarfluavil, an ambercoloured viscid substance; and caoutchouc, and a peculiar principle which gelatinizes on being heated, called Mudarine. Lewin found a neutral principle, Calatropin, a very active poison of the digitalis type. In India the author's husband experimented with it for paper-making, the inner bark yielding a fibre stronger than Russian hemp. The acrid juice hardens into a substance like gutta-percha. It has long been used in India for abortive and suicidal purposes. Mudar root-bark is very largely used there as a treatment for elephantiasis and leprosy, and is efficacious in cases of chronic eczema, also for diarrhoea and dysentery.
USES :
Calotropis is a plant. People use the bark and root bark for medicine.
Despite serious safety concerns, calotropis is used for digestive disorders including diarrhea, constipation and stomach ulcers; for painful conditions including toothache, cramps, and joint pain; and for parasitic infections including elephantiasis and worms. Some people use calotropis for syphilis, boils, inflammation (swelling), epilepsy, hysteria, fever, muscular spasm, warts, leprosy, gout, snakebites, and cancer.
In inhalation therapy, smoke from the bark is inhaled for coughs, asthma, and to cause sweating.
How does it work?
Calotropis contains chemicals that might help thin mucous and make it easier to cough up. In studies in animals, calotropis has shown some activity against pain, inflammation, bacteria, fever, and ulcers caused by alcohol and medications such as aspirin, indomethacin (Indocin), and others.
SOURCES :
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/
>>http://www.arkive.org/
>>http://www.webmd.com/
>>http://
>>http://www.feedipedia.org/
>http://www.globinmed.com/
>>http://www.botanical.com/
>>http://
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