Carissa carandas

Scientific name: Carissa carandas L.

Family: Apocynaceae

Synonym: Carissa salicina Lam.

Bengali/Vernacular name: Karamcha, Karach, Karanga, Karancha.

English name: Christ’s thron.

Description of the plant: A spinous, bushy shrub or small tree, with milky latex. Leaves obovate, ellitpic or oblong, mostly widest above the middle, cuneate at the base, obtuse at the apex. Flowers white, in terminal corymbose cymes. Fruit almost 2 cm long, reddish-purple when ripe.

Plant parts used: Leaf, bark, and root.

Ethnomedicinal uses: A fresh juice is extracted from the roots of the plant is taken thrice a day (two tea spoons amount each time) until the stomach problem and urinary disorder is cured.

Decoction prepared from the leaves of the plant is taken three times a day (50 ml amount each time) until the remittent fever is cured.

A fresh juice extracted from the leaves of the plant is taken three times a day (5 ml amount each time) until the epilepsy is cured.

The bark of the plant is used to treat skin disease.

The leaves of the plant are used for the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery, earache, soreness of the mouth and throat, syphilitic pain, malaria, and diabetes.

Distribution: It is grown in most parts of the country.

Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….