Scientific name: Premna esculenta Roxb.
Family: Verbenaceae
Synonym: Gumira esculenta (Roxb.) Kuntze
Bengali/Vernacular name: Lalana, Lalong.
Tribal name: Unarei (Bawm), Lelom pada (Chakma), Kramuk kai-fung (Chak), Angkung-gam (Khumi), Lamur (Marma), Kasobu (Murang), Taw-mow-poo-chow-koo-mow-row (Rakhaing), Arai-blei (Tripura).
Description of the plant: A small, glabrous, branching shrub. Leaves simple, opposite, 10-20 cm long, obovate, elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate at the apex, base cuneate, sharply serrate at the margin. Inflorescence axillary or terminal, compact, globose corymb. Fruit a drupe, small, globose, 3 mm across.
Plant parts used: Leaf.
Ethnomedicinal uses: Paste prepared from the leaves of the plant is applied on the infected skin for the treatment of eczema.
Fresh juice is extracted from the leaves the plant is taken (10 ml amount each time) until the hysteria is cured.
The fume is obtained by putting leaves of the plant in boiling water, inhaled twice a day for seven days to treat leucorrhoea.
Extract prepared from root, taken one of two cupfuls twice a day for two days to treat over bleeding during delivery.
Cottonseed-sized pills are made with the leaves of the plant are taken thrice a day (one pill each time) for one month to treat oedema.
Paste prepared from the leaves of the plant is applied on biting place twice a day for three days to treat snake bite.
Distribution: It is found in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet, Dinajpur, Gazipur, Tangail districts, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….
