Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MT093 : Ficus exasperata Vahl.

Plant Category : Tree

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : -

Synonym : Ficus asperrima Roxb.; Ficus punctifera Warb.; Ficus scabra Willd.; Ficus serrata Forssk.; Ficus silicea Sim.;

Plant Common Name : Brahma's Banyan, forest sandpaper fig, rough banyan, sand paper fig • Marathi: karvat • Tamil: maramthinniatti • Malayalam: theerakam • Telugu: karaka boddu, karasana, siri bodda • Kannada: adavi atti, garagatti • Konkani: kharvant • Sanskrit: karapatra

Plant Family : Moraceae

Description : Deciduous trees, to 18 m high; aerial roots none; bark 5-6 mm thick, greenish-white, smooth, punctiform lenticellate, fibrous; blaze creamy white, exudation watery; all parts coarsely and harshly scabrid with stout white hairs. Leaves simple, laxly alternate spiral to opposite or subdistichous; stipules short, paired, lateral, cauducous; petiole 1-6.5 cm long, slender, not articulated, lamina 5.5-19 x 3-9 cm, elliptic, ovate, oblong-lanceolate, or obovate, basal acute, round or cuneate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, margin denticulate or sinuate-crenate to serrate, scabrid on both surfaces, with out, coriaceous, 3-ribbed from base, glands at nerve axils; lateral nerves 3-6 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae scalariform; leaves of saplings and coppice shoots often lobed. Flowers unisexual; inflorescence a syconia, axillary, solitary, harshly scabrid; peduncle to 1.5 cm with 2-3 small scattered, lateral bracts, sometimes more or less aggregated into a collar, body subglobose or ellipsoid with scattered small lateral bracts, apical bracts projecting 1-2 mm; internal bristles copious, white, shorter than flowers; flowers of 4 kinds; male flowers sessile, ostiolar, in 1-2 rings; tepals 3-6, oblong-spathulate, white hairy; stamen 1;filament 0.5 mm; anther oblong, parallel; female flowers sessile; tepals 4-7, linear-spathulate, white hairy; ovary superior, obovoid; style filiform, lateral, puberulous, stigma clavate; gall flowers sessile to pedicellate tepals 4-6, lanceolate, white hairy, ovary white, sessile, style terminal, puberulous, stigma dilated. Syconium 0.7-1.5 x 1-1.5 cm, yellow or purple when ripe; achene oblong, slightly keeled, reticulate.

Plant Location in Melghat : Semadoh

Medicinal Use / Activity : The leaf extract has been used to treat high blood pressure, rheumatism, arthritis, intestinal pains and colics, epilepsy, bleeding and wounds. The roots are also used to manage asthma, dyspnoea and venereal diseases. Root decoctions are used in the treatment of urinary tract ailments, gonorrhea, asthma and tuberculosis. The root is chewed in case of cough. The root is an ingredient in a prescription to expel worms. The root bark is used against eye problems. The body is rubbed with root scrapings as a tonic. The wood ash or charcoal is applied on lesions caused by leprosy. Decoctions of the bark are used in the treatment of coughs, worms, haemorrhoids and abnormal enlargement of the spleen. Sap from the stem bark is used to stop bleeding, as a treatment of wounds, sores, abscesses, eye ailments, stomach-ache and for the removal of spines, but some traditional healers consider it corrosive to the skin and dangerous to ingest. The ash of burnt stem bark is sprinkled on wounds. Scrapings from the bark are made into an embrocation with stimulant and tonic properties. The stem bark is locally applied on the body for the treatment of malaria. The leaves and young stems are abortifacient, analgesic, anti-dote, diuretic, emetic, oxytocic and stomachic. A decoction is taken for the treatment of dysentery; diseases of the kidneys and urinary tract; respiratory conditions such as coughs, colds, flu and asthma; hypertension. The young leaf is chewed and swallowed in case of gastric ulcers. The fresh leaf is used as an ingredient of preparations for the treatment of heart diseases. The leaves are cooked with bananas and eaten as a treatment for gonorrhea; the cooking water is also drunk for this purpose.

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: 5-methoxysporalen; bergapten; oxypeucedanin hydrate; sitosterol-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside; beta-sitosterol;

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (1):

Beta-sitosterol;

Plant's Current Status : -

Plant's Cross Database Reference : 259142

Reference : Londhe, A.N., Watve, A.V. & Ansari, M.Y. 2002. “Additions to the flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve”. J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. 26: 385 to 395 - https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/11981 - http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Ficus+exasperata - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Brahma's%20Banyan.html - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3140113/ - http://www.sysrevpharm.org/sites/default/files/3_3.pdf - http://ir.knust.edu.gh/xmlui/handle/123456789/4002

Reference : ~ Jennifer L. McCracken, Sreenivas P. Veeranki, Bill T. Ameredes, William J. Calhoun; "Diagnosis and Management of Asthma in Adults - A Review"; JAMA (2017); 318(3): 279-290 PMID : 28719697

~ Wonder M. K. Abotsi, Eric Woode, George K. Ainooson, Ama K. Amo-Barimah, and Eric Boakye-Gyasi; "Antiarthritic and antioxidant effects of the leaf extract of Ficus exasperata P. Beauv. (Moraceae)"; Pharmacognosy Res (2010); 2(2): 89-97 PMID : 21808547

~ Londhe AN, Watve AV and Ansari MY; "Additions to the flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; J. Econ. Taxon. Bot. (2002); 26(2): 385-395 PMID :

~ Chen S; "Natural products triggering biological targets - a review of the anti-inflammatory phytochemicals targeting the arachidonic acid pathway in allergy asthma and rheumatoid arthritis."; Curr Drug Targets (2011); 12(3): 288-301 PMID : 20955151

~ Park HS, Kim SR, Kim JO and Lee YC; "The roles of phytochemicals in bronchial asthma"; Molecules (2010); 15(10): 6810-34 PMID : 20924320

~ Santosh Kumar Singh, Jay Ram Patel, Prashant Kumar Dubey and Sonia Thakur; "A review on anti-asthmatic activity of traditional medicinal plants"; IJPSR (2014); 5(10): 4109-4116 PMID :

~ Faiyaz Ahmed, Mueen Ahmed KK, Md. Zainul Abedin and Alias A. Karim; "Traditional Uses and Pharmacological Potential of Ficus exasperata Vahl"; Syst Rev Pharm (2012); 3: 15-23 PMID :

~ Balaji Kasirajan, Rajadurai Maruthamuthu, Vidhya Gopalakrishnan, Krithika Arumugam, Hudson Asirvatham, Vidya Murali, Ramya Mohandass and Anusha Bhaskar; "A database for medicinal plants used in treatment of asthma"; Bioinformation (2007); 2(3): 105-106 PMID :

~ Nduche, M.U. and Okwulehie, I.C.; "ETHNOMEDICINAL SURVEY OF PLANTS USED IN TREATING SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED DISEASES IN ABIA STATE, NIGERIA"; Review of Plant Studies (2014); 1(2): 1-9 PMID :

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass : Hamamelididae
Order : Urticales
Family : Moraceae - Mulberry family
Genus : Ficus
Species : Ficus exasperata Vahl.

Ficus exasperata Vahl.
Ficus exasperata Vahl.
Ficus exasperata Vahl.