Chinese Salacia
Genus: Salacia
Botanical name: Salacia chinensis
PLANT NAME IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
Sanskrit: Vairi, Peetika
Hindi: Saptarangi
English: Chinese Salacia
Malayalam: Ekanayakam, Ponkarandi, Korandi
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Chinese Salacia is a climbing shrub, which grows up to 4 m tall. Branchlets are angular, with leaves carried on stalks 8-10 mm long. Leaf blade is elliptic, narrowly ovate-round or obovate-elliptic, 5-11 X 2-5 cm, leathery, base wedge-shaped, margin sparsely toothed, tip nearly acute. Small yellow-green flowers arise in 3-6-flowered fascicles in leaf axils. Flower stalks are 6-10 mm. Sepals are triangular, up to 1 mm. Petals are broadly ovate, 3 mm, broadly spreading or curved outward, with rounded tip. Disk is cup-shaped, 1 mm tall. Berry is round or ovate, 1 cm in diameter, red when ripe, 1-seeded.
The roots are credited with antidiabetic properties, A decoction of root is used in amenorrhoea and dys menorhoea venereal diseases.