ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on uses, folk medicine, chemistry, germplasm, distribution, ecology, cultivation, harvesting, yields, energy, and biotic factors of Malabar Nut. Plant has many medicinal uses. Whole plant used in Sri Lanka for treatment of excessive phlegm, and in menorrhagia. Leaves are source of an expectorant drug used to relieve coughs. Plants are used in folk remedies for glandular tumors in India. Leaf used for asthma, bronchitis, consumption, cough, fever, jaundice, tuberculosis; smoked for asthma; prescribed as a mucolytic, antitussive, antispasmodic, expectorant. Used in Indian medicine for more than 2000 years, adhatoda now has a whole book dedicated to only one of its active alkaloids. Vasicine is toxic to cold-blooded creatures (including fish) but not to mammals. Although it is not listed in many poisonous plant books, the fact that it is not grazed suggests that it could well be poisonous.
