The New Nation - Internet Edition

Jamayet Ali

Sarpogandha (Chandra) is a very familiar medicinal plant found growing in fallaw lands, jungles and also in forests in our country. It also grows in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand and Java. Although the range of distribution of this plant is very wide, its occurrence is sporadic. The plants grow scattered, very seldom close to each other. It can grow under a wide range of climatic conditions both in the open and in partial shade. It can not stand the full open sun. In its native habit, the plant thrives under the shade of forest trees or at the very edge of the forests where three of the four sides are protected against too intense on illumination.

Botanical name of Sarpagandha (Chandra) is Rawolfia serpentina. The plant grows in a wide variety of soils from sandy alluvial loam to red lateritic loam or stiff dark loam. In its natural habitat, it prefers clay or clayey loam with a large percentage of hurnus and other organic debris which ensure uniform moisture levels and a good drainage. This plant can be propagated by seeds, root cuttings, root stumps and stem cuttings. Roots of exploitable size are generally collected 2-3 years after planting. It is reported that the roots dug out in winter when the plants have shed their leaves, are far richer in the total alkaloid content than the roots harvested in August. Roots are dug up, freed from the adhering soil and thoroughly air-dried and packed usually in gunny bags. On air-drying, the moisture content of roots drops to 12-20 percent, but the roots containing less than 8 percent of moisture store better; this can be brought about by artificial drying.

Though roots are widely used as ingredients of medicine, they are commonly adulterated with other parts of the plant such as the stems and root stumps with some portions of the stem attached to them. Roots having an excess of moisture content are also used. Among commercial supplies roots of types from coastal plains are reported to be moderately or grossly adulterated. Stems of the plant contain less quantity of alkaloids and hence adulteration of roots with stems lowers the total alkaloidal content of samples. The roots can be easily distinguished from the stem since they have a more wrinkled surface, are less flexible. thicker, more tortuous and less branched.

Medicinal Properties: The root is bitter, acrid, heating, sharp, pungent; anthelmintic; cures "tridosha", ulcers, the poisonous effects of scorpion-sting and snake-bite (Ayurveda). A decoction of the root is employed in labours to increase uterine contractions. In Java, it is used as an anthelmintic. The juice of the leaves is instilled into the eyes by the natives of India and Java, as a remedy for the removal of opacities of the cornea. In Bombay, most of the labourers who come from the Southern Konkan keep a small supply of the root, which they value as a remedy in painful affections of the boils. In the Konkan the root with Aristolachia indica is given in cholera, in colic, I part of the root with 2 parts of Holarrhena root and 3 parts of Jatropha Curcas root is given in milk. In fever the root with Andro graph is, ginger and black salt is used. The dose of the combined drugs in each case is from 3 to four tolas. The root is used by the Mundas as a snake remedy. The inhabitants of Macassar use the petioles as an antidote for ipoh. (Indian Medicinal plants, KR Kirtikar BD Basu, 1550, 551).

Medicinal values: In recent years, Rawolfia and its preparations have become important therapeutic agents, both as antihypertensives and as sedatives. It is an important source of the active alkaloid, reserpine, which is also extracted commercially from the roots of R. vomitoria and R. tetraphylla. Reserpine content of R. vomitoria is twice that of R. serpentine. Rawolfia has been employed for centuries for relief of various central nervous system disorders, both psychic and motor, including anxiety states, experiment, maniacal behaviour associated with psychosis, schizophrenia, insanity, insomnia and epilepsy. Extracts of the roots are valued for the treatment of intestinal disorders, particularly diarrhoea and dysentery and also an anthelmintic. Mixed with other plant extracts, they have been used in the treatment of cholera, colic and fever. The root was believed to stimulate uterine contraction and recommended for use in child birth in difficult cases. The juice of the leaves has been used as a remedy for opacity of the cornea.

In India and the Malayan Peninsula the root of this plant has been from ancient times, much valued as an antidote for the bites of poisonous reptiles and the stings of insects, also as a febrifuge, and as a remedy for dysentery and other painful affections of the intestinal canal.

Rumphius speaks of it under the name of radix musteloe, and says that in his time it was widely used in India and Java as an antidote against every sort of poison. it was administered both internally in the form of decoction of the root and externally by making a plaster of the roots and fresh leaves and applying them to the soles of the feet. For snake poisonous effects of even the cobra's bite were viewed as rendered harmless by the administration of this wonderful root. It is said by him to have been universally employed as an internal remedy against fevers, cholera and dysentery, and the juice of the leaves was instilled into the eyes as a remedy for the removal of opacities of the cornea. He states also that this is the plant to which the mongoose is believed to have recourse when beaten by poisonous snakes.

Sir W. Jones gives a similar account of the supposed medicinal virtues of the plant, but expresses a doubt as to whether it really is the so-called Ichneumon plant. Roxburgh states that it is used by the "Telinga Physicians, first, in substance, inwardly, as a febrifuge, secondly, in the same manner, after the bite of poisonous animals and thirdly it is administered, in substance to promote delivery in tedious cases." Horse field remarks that the root yields a strong bitter infusion and that its sensible properties indicate considerable activity. Altogether the popular beliefs with regard to this plant and the testimony of medical men in India who have practically tried it as a remedy for fevers, seem to indicate that it possesses strong and well-marked properties; it might, therefore, be advantageous to have a more complete analysis of its composition and more careful determination of its actions.

The pharmacological activity of Sarpogandha is due to its presence of several alkaloids of which resetpine is the most important. Resetpine has a depressant action on central nervous system and produces sedation and a lowering of blood pressure, accompanied by bradycardia. Administered orally, in hypertension, the effects of resetpine are slow, seldom appearing before 3-6 days of administration and continuing for sometime after withdrawal of the drug; it has a cumulative effect. It is most valuable in young patients with mild labile hypertension associated with tachycardia.

Resetpine is used for its sedative action in mild anxiety states and chronic psychoses. It has a tranquillising rather than hyphotic action and produces less somnolence than do barbiturates. Patients with chronic mental illness treated with reserpine often become relaxed, sociable and cooperative. Reserpine is now being used as a tool in physiological studies of other drugs. It is effective against ligation-induced fibrillation of dog heart. It exerts bacterio static action against Grampositive bacteria (The Wealth of India, Raw Materials, Dictionary of the Economic Products of India).