Adhatoda:

 

1. Other names: Adhatoda, Adathodai
2. Botanical name: Adhatoda Vasica Nees, Family - Acanthaceae
3. Habitat: Adhatoda is a shrub known to everyone in villages. It is a small shrub with long, lance-shaped leaves and white flowers. It is grown by planting cuttings. It is grown in all districts of Tamil Nadu. It has a bitter taste, and it is aromatic and pungent. It promotes sweating and expectoration through seeds and roots.
4. Parts used: Leaves, flowers, roots, bark, etc., have medicinal uses.
5. Medicinal properties: There is a proverb that says if you consume Adhatoda leaves along with five black peppers, your voice won't falter. Due to this, it is effective against cough, asthma, phlegm, bronchitis, blood vomiting, bile vomiting, fever, indigestion, diarrhea, and flatulence. It kills small worms. It increases urine output. Taking ten to twenty Adhatoda leaves with honey from the tenth day of menstruation cures fever, cough, and diarrhea. Taking two teaspoons of Adhatoda juice in cow's milk in the morning and evening cures tuberculosis and anemia. Putting Adhatoda flowers in water and washing eyes with it prevents eye diseases. Even if you soak Adhatoda leaves in water and consume it, or if you dry the leaves, powder them, mix it with water, and consume two grams of it with fresh cow's milk, it cures fever, diarrhea, and indigestion. Mixing Adhatoda roots with ginger, adding a little salt, making it into a paste, and consuming it with buttermilk from half to one gram cures dysentery, diarrhea, and stomach pain. Adhatoda mixed with vetiver and amla, taken half to one gram in honey, cures paralysis, asthma, cough, hiccups, fever, indigestion, and pain. Adhatoda relieves constipation, heat, cold, gas, and throat pain. Giving Adhatoda decoction to pregnant women in the last month of pregnancy induces easy delivery. Therefore, Adhatoda is a wonderful herb that cures heart, lung, liver diseases caused by bile, phlegm, and bile disorders.