To learn more about Ayurfarm Categories click on the button.
Sanskrit Name : Chitraka Latin Name : Plumbago zeylanica.Linn Habitat : Found throughout India and sometime cultivated. Morphology : A Perennial herb with 0.6-1.5 m long stems,some what woody,spreading,glabrous. Root - finger like thick ,like shatavari,red from outside but white inside but one can bend them easily.Roots are pungent to taste. Leaves - thin,3.8-7.5x2.2-3.8 cm ovate,subacute,entire,glabrous,reticulately veined,petiole short,amplexicaul at the base. Flowers - in elongate spikes; rachis glandular,striate.Calyx 1-1.3 cm.long,narrowly tubular,densely covered with stalked glands.Corolla white,slender; tube 2-2.5 cm long. Fruit - Capsule,oblong,pointed;pericarp thin below,thick and hardened above. Flowering season is winter followed by fruiting after a month. Part Used - Root bark (use fresh).
Improper use of chitrak causes toxicity.Higher dose of it creates irritant and intoxicant effects.It causes burning of tongue;throat,stomach and all over the body,nausea,vomiting,diarrhoea,dysuria,burning maturation.Pulse becomes feeble and skin becomes wrinkled and cold.
Indicative Price
Chitrak's Raw Herb - Rs.750
Chitrak's Powder - Rs.1,030
Chitrak's Oil - Rs.1,500
Chitrak's Extract - Rs.2,250
If this drug given in pregnancy.It causes irritation of pelvic organs which leads to abortion.
Charak described it as the best drug to cure Guda sotha,Arshas and Sula