Rhinacanthus nasutus

Rhinacanthus nasutus
Drawing of a stick with leaves and small, white, flowers.
R. nasutus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Asterids
Order: Lamiales
Family: Acanthaceae
Subfamily: Acanthoideae
Genus: Rhinacanthus
Species: R. nasutus
Binomial name
Rhinacanthus nasutus
(L.) Kurz
Synonyms

Justicia nasuta L.
Pseuderanthemum connatum Lindau
Rhinacanthus communis Nees

Rhinacanthus nasutus, commonly known as: snake jasmine, (Hindi: कबुतर का फुल kabutar ka phul, पालक जूही; Marathi: गजकर्णी gajkarni; Sanskrit: यूथिकापर्णी yuthikaparni; Tamil: நாகமல்லீ,Nagamalli; Telugu: నాగమల్లె Nagamalle; Tagalog: tagak-tagak)[1][2]

Botanical information

Native to India, this useful plant is a slender, erect, branched, somewhat hairy shrub 1–2 m in height. The leaves are oblong, 4–10 cm in length, and narrowed and pointed at both ends. The inflorescence is a spreading, leafy, hairy panicle with the flowers usually in clusters. The calyx is green, hairy, and about 5 mm long. The corolla-tube is greenish, slender, cylindric, and about 2 cm long. The flowers is 2-lipped; the upper lip is white, erect, oblong or lancelike, 2-toothed at the apex, and about 3 mm in both length and width; and the lower lip is broadly obovate, 1.1-1.3 cm in both measurements, 3-lobed, and white, with a few, minute, brownish dots near the base. The fruit (capsule) is club-shaped and contains 4 seeds.[3]

Uses

R. nasutus has been used to treat numerous diseases such as eczema, herpes, pulmonary tuberculosis, hepatitis, diabetes, hypertension, and different types of skin diseases.[4]
It is useful in treating snake bites.[5]

Rhinacanthus nasutus is known for its antioxidant property, Research has shown that it has high potential to treat a number of neurodegenerative diseases - dementia, stroke, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Alzeheimer's disease.[6][7][8][9]
Rhinacanthus nasutus serves as a potential agent for controlling Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus. [10]
Extracts of R.nasutus showed antifungal , antibacterial, antiviral, anticancer,antiinflammatory, antidiabetic and antiproliferative activities.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

References

  1. ↑ D K Ved, Suma Tagadur Sureshchandra, Vijay Barve, Vijay Srinivas, Sathya Sangeetha, K. Ravikumar, Kartikeyan R., Vaibhav Kulkarni, Ajith S. Kumar , S.N. Venugopal, B. S. Somashekhar, M.V. Sumanth, Sugandhi Rani, Surekha K.V. and Nikhil Desale. 2002-2014. (envis.frlht.org / frlhtenvis.nic.in). FRLHT's ENVIS Centre on Medicinal Plants, Bangalore.
  2. ↑ Image on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/dinesh_valke/2395181283/
  3. ↑ "Rhinacanthus nasutus - Snake Jasmine". flowersofindia.net.
  4. ↑ http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/102901/#B17
  5. ↑ medicinal uses pharmacographica indica
  6. ↑ James M. Brimson. "Molecules - Free Full-Text - Rhinacanthus nasutus Protects Cultured Neuronal Cells against Hypoxia Induced Cell Death". MDPI.
  7. ↑ Brimson, James; T. Tencomnao (26 July 2011). "Rhinacanthus nasutus Protects Cultured Neuronal Cells against Hypoxia Induced Cell Death". Molecules 16 (8): 6322–38. doi:10.3390/molecules16086322. PMID 21792150.
  8. ↑ Brimson, James; Brimson. S; Brimson. C; Rakkhitawatthana. V; Tencomnao. T (23 April 2012). "Rhinacanthus nasutus Extracts Prevent Glutamate and Amyloid-β Neurotoxicity in HT-22 Mouse Hippocampal Cells: Possible Active Compounds Include Lupeol, Stigmasterol and β-Sitosterol". International Journal of molecular sciences 13 (4): 5074–5097. doi:10.3390/ijms13045074.
  9. ↑ Brimson, James; Tewin Tencomnao (2013). "Medicinal herbs and antioxidants: potential of Rhinacanthus nasutus for disease treatment?". Phytochemistry Reviews. doi:10.1007/s11101-013-9324-2.
  10. ↑ http://www.entomoljournal.com/vol3Issue1/pdf/53.1.pdf
  11. ↑ http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/np50092a018
  12. ↑ "Antimicrobial activity and stability of rhinacanthins-rich Rhinacanthus nasutus extract". sciencedirect.com.
  13. ↑ Tewtrakul S, et al. "Effects of rhinacanthins from Rhinacanthus nasutus on nitric oxide, prostaglandin E2 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha releases using RAW264.7 macrop... - PubMed - NCBI". nih.gov.
  14. ↑ "Induction of Apoptosis by Rhinacanthone Isolated from Rhinacanthus nasutus Roots in Human Cervical Carcinoma Cells". jst.go.jp.
  15. ↑ http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/102901/
  16. ↑ "Antiproliferative Activity of Rhinacanthus nasutus (L.) KURZ Extracts and the Active Moiety, Rhinacanthin C". jst.go.jp.
  17. ↑ http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/np960613i
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