Euphorbia nivulia Buch.-Ham. Family: Euphorbiaceae
Synonym: Euphorbia helicothele Lem.
English: Common milk hedge, Indian Spurge Tree
Hindi: काटाथोहार, katathohar
Malayalam: Kallippala, Elakkalli, Ilakalli
Sanskrit: vajri, Patrashuhi
Telugu: బొగ్గు జిల్లేడు
Description
Large erect, fleshy deciduous, shrubs; branches terete; spines straight, 3-6 mm long, paired on flat corky base. Leaves alternate, sessile, 7-18 x 3-6.5 cm, oblanceolate-oblong or obovate, base cuneate, apex obtuse, fleshy. Cyathia usually paired, in subterminal cymes. Involucre broadly cupular, yellow; lobes fimbriate; glands 5, transversely oblong, fleshy, appendage absent. Male flowers with sterile florets, bracteolate. Female florets laterally pendulous. Style stout, branched above; stigmatic lobes flattened and slightly expanded. Capsule c. 5 mm across, 3-lobed. Seeds 4-angular, smooth.
Uses: Expectorant, digestive, stomachic, abortive [Medicinal Plants]
Used in Ayurveda and Sidha. Plant juice given to drink for cough, fever in children. Milky latex applied to cure scorpion stings, bone fracture, rheumatism, itch and skin diseases. Stem bark powder mixed with goat milk and jaggery and the paste applied over the bone fracture. Leaves juice employed in earache and on mumps, mixed with neem oil applied in rheumatism; leaves warmed in mustard oil applied in cold and headache. Veterinary medicine, latex applied to treat wounds of cattle. [CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants]
Latex—used for treating jaundice, dropsy, enlargement of liver and spleen; colic; syphilis, leprosy; applied to haemorrhoids. Coagulated latex is used for bronchitis. Leaf—juice is used as a purgative. Warmed in mustard
oil, applied in cold and headache. [Indian Medicinal Plants An Illustrated Dictionary]
22 Published articles of Euphorbia nivulia
