Family: Solanaceae
Synonym:Solanum esculentum Dunal
Bengali/Vernacular name: Begun, Bagun, Baigoon (Bengali); Baion (Noakhali).
Tribal name: Poaungci (Chak), Meto (Khumi), Bawk bawn (Lushai), Kajah she (Marma), Mentao (Murang), Andok (Pangkhoa), Kha-rean-ching (Rakhaing), Jhum-baigun (Tanchangya).
English name: Brinjal,Aubergine, Eggplant.
Description of the plant: A woody herb or undershrub, up to 1.5 m or more tall, often-branched, armed with prickles or unarmed, stellate. Leaves simple, alternate, ovate to ovate-oblong, densely stellate hairy, base rounded to cordate. Flowers usually solitary or in 2-5 flowered cymes, purplish-violet. Fruit a large pendent berry, depressed-globose to ellipsoid, ovoid or obovoid, up to 40 X 20 cm, but very variable, smooth, shiny, purple or purplish-violet.
Plant parts used: Leaf, fruit, root.
Herbal uses: Leaves of the plant are used for the treatment of stomachache.
An extract made with the leaves by boiling in water is used for gargling four times a day for five days to treat toothache.
Fruits of the plantare bruised with vinegar and used as a poultice for cracked nipples, abscesses, and haemorrhoids.
It is made into a powder and applied both internally and externally as a remedy for bleeding.
The boiled root of the plant, mixed with sour milk, has been used for the treatment of syphilis.
The burning ash of the leaves is applied in the anus twice a day until the piles is cured.
Decoction made withtherootsof the plant is taken internally for the treatment of asthma.
Gargling is done with the leaf extract of the plant twice a day until the sore in mouth is cured.
Leaf juice is used as antidote to poison.
The plant is used to treat diabetes, otitis, cholera, bronchitis, and dysuria
Distribution: Cultivated widely throughout Bangladesh.
Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….
