Habit : A large climbing shrub with numerous hooked prickles scattered through the branches and rachis of leaves.
Bark : Pale-brown, polished.
Leaves : Bipinnate, spiny on the rachis, but not on the stipules, with a large gland at about the middle of the petiole below the pinnae and one between the uppermost or two uppermost pairs of pinnae, leaflets 12-25 pairs.
Inflorescence :
It is a cluster of 2 or 3 stalked rounded flower-heads in axils of upper reduced leaves, appearing paniculate i.e. forming panicles.
Stalk (peduncles) carrying the cluster is 1-2.5 cm long, velvety.
Flower-heads about 1 cm in diameter when mature.
Flowers : White or yellowish, complete, actinomorphic, hermaphrodite.
Fruits : Pods thick and fleshy, 7-12 cm long, 1.8-2.8 cm broad, somewhat constricted between seeds, becoming wrinkled when dry.
Seeds : 6-10
Flowering and Fruiting Time :August - October - November
Significance :
Fruits are used in soap preparations because they have a naturally mild pH, that gently cleans the hair without stripping it of natural oils.
It is used as shampoo and for washing warm-silky clothes.
It is used to control dandruff, promoting hair growth and strengthening hair roots.
Its leaves are used in malarial fever, decoction of the pods are used to relieve biliousness and acts as a purgative.
An ointment, prepared from the ground pods, is good for skin diseases.
