Rauvolfia serpentina

• Botanical Name : Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Benth. Ex Kurz
• Synonyms : Ophioxylon serpentinum L.
• Common Name : Serpentina, Sarpagandha
• Plant Family : Apocynaceae
• Plant Form : Shrub
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Indroda Park, Ayurvedic Udyan, Van Chetana Kendra

About Rauvolfia serpentina Plant :

• Habit : A small erect shrub with pale bark.
• Leaves : In whorls of 3, thin, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, glabrous, bright green above, pale beneath, base tapering.
• Inflorescence : Irregular corymbose cymes.
• Flowers :
  • White, often tinged with violet, pedicellate.
  • Calyx glabrous, bright-red, lanceolate.
  • Corolla tube slender, swollen a little above the middle, elliptic-oblong, rounded at the apex.
  • Disk cup-shaped, membranous, obscurely lobed.
• Fruit : Drupes single or didynamous and connate more or less deeply, purplish-black when ripe.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : March - May
• Significance :
  • It is a very useful medicinal plant for lowering high blood-pressure, insomnia, melancholia and violent mental disorders.
  • The roots yield drug-the only best remedy for lowering blood pressure.