JYOTISMATI (Seed)
Jyotishmati consists of dried, brownish-orange, ripe seeds, devoid of capsule wall of Celastrus paniculatus Willd. (Fam. Celastraceae); a large climbing shrub, mostly found all over the hilly parts of the country upto an altitude of 1200 m.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : —
Assamese : Kapalphotla
Bengali : —
English : Staff tree
Gujrati : Malkangani
Hindi : Malkangani
Kannada : Doddaganugae, Gangunge beeja, Gangunge humpu, Kangondiballi
Kashmiri : —
Malayalam : Ceruppunnari, Uzhinja
Marathi : Malkangoni
Oriya : Malkanguni, lyotishmati
Punjabi : Malkangoni
Tamil : Valuluvai
Telugu : Malkangani, Peddamaveru
Urdu : Malkangani
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Dried ripe seeds more or less covered by orange-red crusty aril, seed without aril also prescent, measuring 5-6 mm in length and 2.5-3.35 mm in breadth, a few roughly three sided being convex on the sides and a few two sided with one convex and other more or less flat side, one edge of many seeds show a faint ridge or raphe on the whole margin; surface generally smooth and- hard; colour, light to dark brown; odour, unpleasant; taste, bitter.
b) Microscopic
Seed – Shows single layered epidermis covered externally with thick cuticle and filled with tannin, followed by 4-6 layers of thin-walled, collapsed, parenchymatous cells and layer of radially elongated stone cells; parenchyma of top one or two layers longer than of the below with triangular intercellular spaces; inner most layer of parenchyma containing prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate; beneath stone cells layer quadrangular to octagonal, tangentially elongated cells filled with brownish contents; endosperm composed of polygonal, thin-walled, parenchymatous cells having oil gloubles and aleurone grains; embryo spathulate in fleshy endosperm containing oil globules and aleurone grains.
Powder – Oily, dark brown; under microscope shows groups of endospermic parenchyma, stone cells, oil globules and aleurone grains and shows fluorescence under U.V. light as following :-Powder as such : Grenish -brown
Powder + 1 N NaOH in Methanol : Light green
Powder + Nitrocellulose in Amyl Acetate : Yellowish-green
CONSTITUENTS – Alkaloids, Oil and Tannins.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Katu, Tikta
Guna : Sara, Ushna, Tikshna
Virya : Ushna
Vipaka : Katu
Karma : (Prabhava : Meddhya), sirovirecanopaga, Dipana, Kaphahara, Vamaka, Vatahara, Virecaka, Meddhya
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Smritisagara Rasa, Jyotishmati Taila.
THERAPEUTIC USES – Vatavyadhi, Smritidaurbalya, svitra.
DOSE – Seed: 1-2 g. Oil : 5-15 drops.
