Cynanchum acidum

Cynanchum acidum is a species of flowering plant in the family Apocynaceae, typically found in the valleys and sub tropical mountains in the Himalayas. The plant is religiously linked to Hinduism and is believed to be a major ingredient of the Soma in Ancient India.[1]

Cynanchum acidum
Cynanchum acidum
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Plantae
(unranked):
Angiosperms
(unranked):
Eudicots
(unranked):
Asterids
Order:
Gentianales
Family:
Apocynaceae
Subfamily:
Asclepiadoideae
Tribe:
Asclepiadeae
Subtribe:
Cynanchinae
Genus:
Cynanchum
Species:
C. acidum
Binomial name
Cynanchum acidum
Synonyms
  • Asclepias acida Roxb.
  • Asclepias aphylla Roxb. ex Wight
  • Sarcostemma acidum (Roxb.) Voigt
  • Sarcostemma brevistigma Wight & Arn.

Description

Cynanchum acidum is a perennial leafless, jointed shrub with green, cylindrical, fleshy glabrous with twining branches having milky white latex and with its leaves reduced to scales. Its flowers are white or pale greenish white, are fragrant and grow in umbels on branch extremities. The fruits follicles taper at both ends, seeds are flat, ovate. comose. The plant is bitter, acrid, cooling, alterant, narcotic, emetic, antiviral and rejuvenating. In classical Indian medicine it is considered useful in vitiated conditions of pitta, dipsia, viral infection, hydrophobia, psychopathy and general debility.[2]

This leafless plant grows in rocky, sterile places all over India. The plant yields an abundance of a mildly acidulous milky juice, and travellers like nomadic cowherds suck its tender shoots to allay thirst. Traditional accounts hold that Cynanchum acidum is the Soma or Som plant of the Vedas. The Rig Veda, ix. says, the purifying Soma, like the sea rolling its waves, has poured forth songs, hymns and thoughts.[3]

References
  1. Singh, N. P. (1988). Flora of Eastern Karnataka, Volume 1. Mittal Publications. p. 416. ISBN 9788170990673.
  2. Warrier, P. K.; Nambiar, V. P. K. (1993). Indian Medicinal Plants: A Compendium of 500 Species, Volume 5. Orient Blackswan. p. 73. ISBN 9788125007630.
  3. Balfour, Edward (1885). The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia: Commercial, Industrial and Scientific, Products of the Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal Kingdoms, Useful Arts and Manufactures, Volume 3. Bernard Quaritch. p. 535.


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