VIDARIKANDA (Tuber)
Vidarikanda is the dried tuber of Pueraria tuberosa DC. (Fam. Fabaceae), a large, perennial climber with tuberous roots, upto 60 cm long and 30 cm thick, even weighing upto 35 kg, from about 5 or 10 kg.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Ikshugandha, Vidari
Assamese : —
Bengali : Shimiya, Shimiabatraji, Bhui Kumdo
English : Indian Kudju
Gujrati : Khakharvel, Vidaree, Vidareekand
Hindi : VidareeKand, Bilaikand, Sural, Patal Kand
Kannada : —
Kashmiri : —
Malayalam : —
Marathi : Bendriya bel, Bindree, Vendrichavel
Oriya : —
Punjabi : Siali
Tamil : Nilpushni Kezhugu
Telugu : Nelagummudu
Urdu : —
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Dried cut pieces of tuber, 3 to 5 cm large, 2 to 4 cm broad and fibrous; outer surface where present, light brown in colour; outer surface, where epidermis is present, is light brown with transverse warts and ridges; cut surface creamy; fleshy, transverse small warts and ridges are found on the surface, texture smooth; sweet in taste, no particular smell (cut pieces of the tubers of Ipomoea digitata, substitute of P. tuberosa, are cubical, smooth, light cream in colour and can easily be distinguished).
b) Microscopic
T.S. of whole root tuber is slightly wavy in outline, epidermis not discernible; 3 to 4 layers of cork cells, followed by 5 to7 layers of parenchymatous cells present; cork cambium-brown in colour and 2 or 3 cells thick, endodermis well developed; pericycle fibrous followed by 2 layers of stone cells filled with sandy crystals; phloem consist of sieve tubes, companion cells, patches of bast fibres and phloem parenchyma; xylem pentarch in young root, consist of vessels with scalariform cross perforation, tracheids, xylem fibres and parenchyma; medullary rays broad and parenchymatous. The medullary rays and phloem cells are filled with starch grains which are polygonal, 2 to 5 µm in diameter, simple or two to many-compound, hilum usually indistinct, occasionally a central cleft, lamellae indistinct. In macerated preparation crystal fibres are multicellular, articulated, each cell carrying a crystal of calcium oxalate, some of the articulated fibres are swollen in the middle like a bulb pipette.
Powder – Greyish-brown, no characteristic odour, bitter in taste; shows parenchyma filled with starch, septate fibres in the form of crystals fibres as well as shaped bulb like pipette; vessels with simple and scalariform cross perforation plates, stone cells, and starch as described under microscopy; powder treated with 1N NaOH in methanol and nitro-cellulose in amylacetate gives light green fluorescence under UV 254 nm.
CONSTITUENTS – Pterocarpan-tuberosin, pterocarpanone-hydroxytuberosone, two pterocarpenes-anhydrotuberosin and 3-O-methylanhydrotuberosin, and a coumestan tuberostan. An isoflavone-puerarone and a coumestan-puerarostan.
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Madhura
Guna : Guru, Snigdha
Virya : sita
Vipaka : Madhura
Karma : Balya, Hridya, Jivaniya, Mhutral, Pittahara, Svarya, Vajikarana, Vatahara, Vrishya, Varnya, Brihana, Stanyadu, Rasayana
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – satavaryadi Ghrita, Mahavishagarbha Taila, Marmagutika, Nityananda Rasa, Sarasvatarishta, Asvagandhadyarishta
THERAPEUTIC USES – shula, Daha, Kasa, Kshaya, Mhutrakricchra, Raktadosha, Raktapitta, Vishamajvara, Visarpa, sukrakshaya
DOSE – 3-6 g.
