Habit : A perennial shrub with terete, glabrous stems.
Leaves : Broadly triangular-ovate, truncate at base and unequal-sided, entire at the margins or irregularly dentate, covered with a fine mealy pubescence or glabrous on both sides.
Inflorescence : Solitary
Flower :
Showy often double or triple, one corolla issuing from another.
Calyx green, tubular, minutely pubescent outside, 5-toothed at the rim, the teeth triangular. Corolla pure white or more or less tinged with purple, the rim 5-toothed, ovary covered with soft prickles.
Fruit :
Globose, supported on the reflexed base of the calyx, covered with short tubercles, splitting open irregularly.
Seeds numerous, reniform, flat, pale-brown.
Flowering and Fruiting Time : August-October
Significance :
The seeds acrid, bitter, heating, tonic, febrifuge, anthelmintic, alexiteric, emetic, useful in leucoderma, skin-diseases, ulcers, bronchitis, biliousness, jaundice, piles.
The whole plant is narcotic, toxic, aphrodisiac; applied topically it removes pain of tumours and piles.
Leaves after healing are applied locally to relieve eye pain, headache, nose-trouble, enlargement of testicles and boils.
