Centella Asiatica

 Family Name : APIACEAE 

Botanical Name : CENTELLA ASIATICA 

Common Name : PENNYWORT, INDIAN PENNYWORT, ARTAYNIYA-E HINDI, JAL BRAHMI 

Part Used : WHOLE PLANT 

Habitat : Grown in waterlogged places throughout India. 

The stems are slender, creeping stolons, green to reddish green in color, interconnecting one plant to another. It has long-stalked, green, reniform leaves with rounded apices which have smooth texture with palmately netted veins. The leaves are born on pericladial petioles, around 20 cm. The rootstock consists of rhizomes, growing vertically down. They are creamish in color and covered with root hairs. 

The flowers are pinkish to red in color, born in small, rounded bunches (umbels) near the surface of the soil. Each flower is partly enclosed in two green bracts. The hermaphrodite flowers are minute in size (less than 3 mm), with 5-6 corolla lobes per flower. Each flower bears five stamens and two styles.

The crop matures in three months and the whole plant, including the roots, is harvested manually. When eaten raw as a salad leaf, pegaga is thought to help maintain youthfulness. A decoction of juice from the leaves is thought to relieve hypertension. This juice is also used as a general tonic for good health. A poultice of the leaves is also used to treat open sores. Interestingly, chewing on the plant for several hours induces entheogenic meditation, similar to the effects of salvia divinorum, although this practice is widely considered dangerous, as it can cause temporomandibular joint pains.

.
Cinchona Officinalis

 Family Name : RUBIACEAE 

Botanical Name : CINCHONA OFFICINALIS 

Common Name : QUININE, PERUVIAN BARK, QUININE BARK 

Part Used : QUININE ISOLATED FROM BARK 

Habitat : Cultivated in Nilgiri Hills 

Uses : Quinine is bitter, astringent, acrid, thermogenic, febrifugre, oxytoxic and anodyne. It is digestive, antipyretic, cardiotonic, dystocia, eumbago etc