Eranda (Rt.)
ERANDA
Eranda consists of dried, mature roots of Ricinus communis Linn. (Fam. Euphorbiaceae), a tall glabrous shrub or almost small tree 2-4 m high, mostly growing wild on waste land and also cultivated for its oil seeds.
SYNONYMS
Sanskrit : Gandharvahasta, Vitiri, Paµcingula, Citri, Urubu, Rubu
Assamese : Eda, Era
Bengali : Bherenda
English : Castor oil plant
Gujrati : Erandio, Erando
Hindi : Arand, Erand, Andi, Rend
Kannada : Haralu, Oudala gida
Kashmiri : Aran, Banangir
Malayalam : Avanakku
Marathi : Erand
Oriya : Jada, Gaba
Punjabi : Arind
Tamil : Amanakku
Telugu : Amudapu veru
Urdu : Bedanjir, Arand
DESCRIPTION
a) Macroscopic
Root light in weight almost straight with few rootlets, outer surface dull yellowish brown, nearly smooth but marked with longitudinal wrinkles, some places whitish-yellow and soft, odourless, taste, acrid.
b) Microscopic
Transverse section of root shows thin layer of cork of squarish to tangentially elongated, thin-walled cells, beneath cork, secondary cortex of thin-walled, tangentiallyelongated cells, narrow cortex of rounded to tangentially elongated thin-walled parenchymatous cells, some containing large oil globules, rosettes of calcium oxalate crystals and round simple or compound starch grains, phloem a broad zone, consisting of sieve tubes, phloem parenchyma and phloem fibres, fibres long, mostly septate, highly thickened, having narrow lumen, some fibres surrounded by concentric rows of cells containing crystals of calcium oxalate, sieve tubes, thin-walled with companion cells and phloem parenchyma in the inner region of phloem more prominent , some phloem parenchyma cells contain crystals of calcium oxalate , cambium 3-5 layered, cells rectangular in shape, xylem occupies major part of root, pentarch, five groups of primary xylem distinct in the centre of the wood, xylem consists of vessels, parenchyma and fibres , vessels uniformly scattered throughout the xylem region, either solitary or in groups, larger in size towards phloem, with bordered pits , xylem parenchyma less is number around vessels containing starch grains, xylem fibres long and thick-walled, medullary rays uni-to-biseriate, more or less straight, 4-5 seriate rays, sometimes found near protoxylem groups, ray cells, thin-walled, slightly radially elongated in phloem region, thick-walled in xylem region, all ray cells contain starch grains.
CONSTITUENTS – Alkaloid (ricinine).
PROPERTIES AND ACTION
Rasa : Madhura
Guna : Guru, Snigdha
Virya : Ushna
Vipaka : Madhura
Karma : Vitahara, Vrishya, Amapicana
IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS – Grandharvahastidi Kvitha Churna, Vitiri Guggulu,Gandharvahasta taila
THERAPEUTIC USES – sotha, Jvara, Udararoga, Amavita, Vastishula, Kaishula
DOSE – 20-30 g of the drug for decoction.
