Psoralea consists of dried ripe fruits and seeds of Psoralea corylifolia Linn, belonging to family Leguminosae.
PSORALEA
Synonyms
Bavachi fruits, Malaya tea, Bavachi seeds.
Biological Source
Psoralea consists of dried ripe fruits and seeds of Psoralea corylifolia Linn, belonging to family Leguminosae.
Geographical Source
Psoralea is mainly found in India, China, Sri Lanka, Nepal
and Vietnam.
Characteristics
The plant is an annual herb attending to a height of 60 cm
to 1 m. The plant contains prominent grooves of glands and white hairs on the
stem and branches. Fruits are very small 3–4.5 mm long and 2–3 mm broad. Fruits
are dark chocolate to black in colour with pericarp attached to seeds. Fruits
are ovate, oblong or bean shaped, compressed, glabrous rounded or mucronate and
pitted. Seed is produced from campylotro-pous ovule and are kidneyshaped, 2–4
mm long, 2–3 mm broad, smooth, exalbuminous with straw coloured hard testa.
Fruit has no smell, taste is bitter, acrid and unpleasant.
Microscopy
A thin section of fruit shows pericarp with prominent ridges
and depressions, consisting of collapsed parenchyma and large secretory glands
containing oleoresinous matter; testa, outer layer of palisade epidermis, layer
of bearer cells which are much thickened in the inner tangential and basal
radial walls and two to three layers of parenchyma are seen; cotyledons of
polyhedral parenchyma and three layers of palisade cells on the axial side are
also present.
Chemical Constituents
Psoralea contains coumarin compounds like psoralen,
isopsoralen, psoralidin, isopsoralidin, carylifolean, bavachro-manol and
psoralenol. It also contains fixed oil (10%), essential oil (0.05%) and resin.
The seeds contain flavonoids such as bavachalcone, bavachinin,
isobavachalcone, bavachin and isobavachin, etc. The seed oil yielded limonene, β-caryophyllen oxide, 4-terpineol, linalool, geranyl acetate,
angelicin, psoralen and bakuchiol.
Chemical Tests
1. Psoralea dissolved in alcohol and
sodium hydroxide solution is added and observed under UV light, yellow
fluorescence is observed.
2. Psoralea is dissolved in small
amount of alcohol and add 3 times of propylene glycol, 5 times of acetic acid
and 40 times of water, a blue fluorescence is observed under UV light.
Uses
The fruits are aphrodisiac, antibacterial and tonic to the
genital organs. The seed is anthelmintic, antibacterial, aphrodisiac,
astringent, cytotoxic, diaphoretic, diuretic, stimulant, stomachic and tonic.
It is used in the treatment of febrile diseases, premature ejaculation,
impotence, lower back pains, frequent urination, incontinence, bed wetting etc.
It is also used externally to treat various skin ailments including leprosy,
leucoderma and hair loss.
Marketed Products
It is one of the ingredients of the preparations known as
Purim, Erina (Himalaya Drug Company), Purodil, Luko-skin (Aimil
Pharmaceuticals) and Sage Somaraji oil (Sage Herbals).
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