Murraya koenigii (L.) Sprengel (RUTACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Kari bevu.
Malayalam: Kurri veppilla.
Sanskrit: Surabhininiba.
Tamil: Kari vempu, Karuveppilai.
Telugu: Kari pakku.
Description: Large shrubs or small trees, up to 6 m tall; bark green or greyish. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, up to 50 cm long; petioles and rachises densely white-pubescent; leaflets alternate, 15-27, asymmetric, ovate to lanceolate, 2-8 x 1-3 cm, acute/oblique at base, shortly acuminate or tapering at apex, the tip usually notched, dark green above, paler beneath, glandular – crenulate along margins; secondary nerves 4-10 pairs. Flowers in up to 7 x 8 cm, terminal corymbose cymes, scented. Calyx saucer shaped; sepals 5, fused at base, glandular. Petals 5, valvate, linear, obtuse, greenish-white, glandular. Stamens 10; filaments subulate; anthers dorsifixed, pale greenish. Disc annular, slightly conical, obscurely 5-lobed. Ovary oblong-ovoid, 2-locular; style slender below, dialated below the stigma; stigma capitate, glandular. The berries are subglobose, around 0.8 cm in diameter, turning purplish to black when ripe, with whitish, mucilaginous pulp. The seeds are ovoid-oblong and typically green, numbering 1 or 2.
Flowering : March – April.
Fruiting : May – July.
Distribution: India: Mostly in moist deciduous forests in the subtropical N.W. Himalayas, N.E. Peninsular India. Also in cultivation. Jammu & Kashmir, Himachala Pradesh, Uttara Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Sikkim, Assam, Meghalaya, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Sri Lanka and S. China.
Uses: The leaves are used to flavour curries. Plant tonic, stomachic; leaf febrifuge, used in diarrhoea, dysentery and eruptions, for checking vomiting, relieves kidney pain; leaf, bark and root stimulant, carminative and used in diabetes. In Ayurveda the root and leaf are used in dropsy, dysentery and diarrhoea.