Scientific name: Solanum americanum Mill.
Family: Solanaceae
Synonym: Solanum nigrum L.
Bengali/Vernacular name: Kakmachi, Tit begun, Phuti begun, Gurki, Gurkamai.
Tribal name: Bulputting, Ban morich (Chakma); Kheyangeikeci (Chak); Epychu (Khumi); Plemmoui (Murang); Aanchangti (Pangkhoa).
English name: Black night shade, Garden nightshade, Common night shade.
Description of the plant: An annual herb, stem much divaricately branched. Leaves ovate or elliptic, margin entire or bluntly toothed, glabrous or minutely pubescent, base attenuate, apex acute to obtuse. Flowers small, white, in extra-axillary, subumbellate, 3-8 flowered cymes. Fruit a globose to ellipsoid berry, glabrous, dull purple-black when ripe.
Plant parts used: Leaf and stem.
Medicinal uses: Juice extracted from leaves and stems of the plant is taken twice a day (2 tea spoons amount each time) until the gout is cured.
Pea-sized pills are made with leaves and stems of the plant are advised to take with 5 ml amount of honey thrice a day (one pill each time) for one month to treat gynecological disease.
Decoction made from leaves and stems of the plant is used as fomentation for sore eyes, wound and various skin diseases.
Juice extracted from leaves and stems of the plant is used for dropsy, heart disease, piles, and gonorrhoea.
Distribution: All over Bangladesh in fallow lands.
Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….
