Leucas cephalotes (Whole Plant)

DRONAPUSPI (Whole Plant)
Dronapushpi consists of dried whole plant of Leucas cephalotes Spreng. (Fam. Lamiaceae), an annual, erect, scaberulous, stout herb, about 0.6-0.9 m in high, found on the Himalayas at an altitude of 600-1800 m and on waste lands throughout the country.

SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Katumba
Assamese : Dronaphool
Bengali : Bholghasiya
English : —
Gujrati : Kubo
Hindi : Guma
Kannada : Tumbe
Kashmiri : —
Malayalam : Tumba
Marathi : Tumba
Oriya : Gaisha
Punjabi : Gomobati, Gumma, Mal-bheda
Tamil : Tumbai
Telugu : Tummi
Urdu : —

DESCRIPTION

a) Macroscopic
Root – Cylindrical, zig-zag, smooth, long with numerous wiry, fine rootlets, size variable, fracture, fibrous; taste, characteristic.
Stem – Light greenish-yellow, surface rough, hairy, quadrangular with four prominent furrows, upto 4 mm thick, nodes and internodes distinct; taste, slightly bitter.
Leaf – Yellowish-green, 3-9 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, ovate or ovate- lanceolate, subacute, more or less pubescent, crenate, serrate; taste, pungent. Inflorescence – Sessile, white, crowded in dense, globose, about 2-3.5 cm across, surrounded by numerous foliaceous bracts, thin, lanceolate, acute, ciliate, 1.2-1.5 cm long and 0.3-0.35 cm wide; calyx, tubular, slightly curved, 1-2.25 cm long, glabrous in lower part, hairy on upper part, 10 dentate with a villous throat; corolla, white, 1.7-2 cm long, bilipped, upper lip about 4 mm long, wooly, lower lip nearly twice as long as upper one; lateral lobes small.
Fruit – Schizocarpic carcerule, nutlets 3 mm smooth, brown. Seed – 0.3 cm long and 0.1 cm wide, oblong, trigonous, smooth, dark brown.

b) Microscopic
Root – Shows a single layered epidermis composed of rectangular, thin-walled cells; secondary cortex consists of thin-walled,tangentially elongated, parenchymatous cells; secondary phloem consists of sieve elements and phloem parenchyma; secondary xylem consists of vessels, tracheids, fibres and xylem parenchyma; vessels long with spurs, vessels and tracheids have simple pits, xylem fibres much elongated with pointed ends and have moderately thick walls, some having simple pits; medullary rays 1-2 seriate, upto 8 cells high.
Stem – Shows squarish outline with four ridges and furrows, consists of a single layered epidermis, composed of oval to rectangular, thin-walled cells having a number of uni to tricellular trichomes; secondary cortex 5-9 layered, consisting of 3-5 layers of circular, oval or irregular collenchymatous cells at the ridge and 2-4 layers of thin-walled, tangentially elongated, parenchymatous cells; endoderm is single layered, consisting of barrel shaped, thin-walled cells; pericycle single layered of thin-walled cells comparatively smaller than the cells of endodermis, a few pericyclic cells converted into pericyclic fibres; phloem very narrow consisting of usual elements; xylem consists of vessels, tracheids, fibres and large amount of xylem parenchyma; vessels mostly cylindrical with simple pits and spiral thickening; tracheids and xylem parenchyma have simple pits on their walls; pith wide consisting of circular to oval, thin-walled, parenchymatous cells.
Leaf-
Petiole – shows a single layered epidermis, uni to tricellular trichomes with pointed ends, cortex consisting of single layered, round to angular collenchyma; parenchyma consists of thin-walled cells containing prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate, vascular bundles 4, 2 smaller located towards each comer and 2 larger in centre. Midrib – shows epidermis on either side with uni to tricellular trichomes, followed by 1-2 layers collenchyma towards lower surface, 3-4 layers towards upper surface, followed by round to oval parenchyma, 4 – 7 layered;vascular bundle arc-shaped, present in centre.
Lamina – shows epidermis on either side with uni to tricellular trichomes rarely on upper surface; palisade single layered; spongy parenchyma 3-5 layered, irregular, thin-walled cells; a few veins present in this region; stomata diacytic, present on both surfaces;stomatal index 16.6-40.5 on lower surface, 16.6-30.7 on upper surface; palisade ratio7-9.
Powder – Dull yellow; shows groups of round to polygonal parenchymatous cells, pitted and spiral vessels, aseptate fibres, uni to tricellular trichomes and diacytic stomata.

CONSTITUENTS – Alkaloid, Glycoside, s -Sitosterol and Flavonoid.

PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Madhura, Lavana, Katu
Guna : Guru, Ruksha, Tikshna
Virya : Ushna
Vipaka : Madhura
Karma : Kaphahara, Pittakara, Vatakara, Bhedani, Rucya

IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Plihari Vatika, Gorocanadi Vati.

THERAPEUTIC USES – sotha, Kasa, Kamala, Tamaka svasa, Agnimandya, Vishamajvara

DOSE – 1-3 g of the drug in powder form.5-10 ml of the drug in juice form.