Solanum Xanthocarpum: Best Herb for Cough and Asthma (Kantakari)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

Solanum xanthocarpum, also known as Kantakari or Yellow-fruit nightshade, is a medicinal plant that has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine for centuries. Its fruit, leaves, and roots are all used for various health benefits, including respiratory health, digestive issues, and inflammation.

Solanum xanthocarpum is of Solanaceae family is a prickly herb having immense importance in traditional systems of medicine. This plant is covered with plenty of thorns that is why it is called Kantakari. It is one of the key ingredients of famous formulations like dashamoola, laghu panchmool, and panchtikta. Kantakari is the prime drug for cough as per Vagbhatta.

The plant has yellow, shining prickles of about 1.5 cm in size. It has very prickly, sparsely hairy, egg-shaped leaves, flowers are purple, and a glabrous, globular berry, green and white stripes when young, and yellow when mature.

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2. Common Names

• Family – Solanaceae
• Hindi Name – Bhatkataiya, Chhotikateri, kateli
• English Name – Yellow-berried nightshade, Febrifuge plant

3. Vernacular Names

• Assamese – Katvaedana, Kantakar
• Bengali – Kantakari
• Gujrati – Bhoringani
• Kannada – Nelagulla, Kiragulla
• Malayalam – Kantakari Chunda
• Marathi – Bhauringani, Kataringani
• Orrisa – Ankarati
• Tamil – Kandangatri, Kandan Katri
• Telugu – Nelamulaka

4. Synonyms

• Kantakari – This herb is covered with lots of thorn.
• Vyaghri – This plant is useful in the disease of nose and promotes voice.
• Kshudra – It is a small herb in comparison to Brihati. It also enhances digestive fire and that is why it is called kshudra.
• Kasaghnou – It cures cough.
• Nidigdhika – The plant grows very fast and removes mucous coating from the respiratory tract.
• Kuli – Fruits are found in cluster.
• Dravani – It liquefies the cough and acts as expectorant.
• Rastrika – It is a common plant available everywhere.

5. Classification

• Charaka Samhita – Kasahara, Sothara
• Sushrut Samhita - Brihatyadi
• Ashtanga Sangraha - Vidarigandhadi
• Ashtanga Hridya - Vidarigandhadi
• Dhanvantari Nighantu – Guduchyadi varga
• Madanpal Nighantu – Abhayadi
• Kaiyadev Nighantu – Oshadhi varga
• Raj Nighantu – Shatahwadi varga
• Bhavaprakasha Nighantu – Guduchyadi varga

5. Distribution

It is distributed in Australia, Ceylon, India, Malaysia, Polynesia, and Southeast Asia. It is commonly found throughout India, ascending to 2,200 m on the Himalayas as wild growing plants along the roadside and dry waste lands.

6. Morphology

It is prickly, diffused, bright green perennial herb, about 1.2 m tall usually with woody base. The fruit of the plant yields carpesterol, glucoside-alkaloids, and solanocarpine. It also yields glucoside-alkaloids and solamine-S. The root contains cork comprising 3-6 layers of thin-walled, rectangular, and tangentially elongated cells.

Stem – Profusely branched, somewhat zigzag, young stems are clothed with dense satellite and tomentose hairs, spines are compressed, straight, yellow, glabrous, and shinning often exceeding 1.3 cm.

Leaves – Ovate-elliptic, sinuate or subpinnatified, usually five to ten in number, 2.5 to 6cm in length, hairy on both sides, long, sharp, yellow spines on mid ribs and veins, unequal base, petiole 1.3 to 2.5 cm long.

Flowers – Bluish pink in extra-axillary racemes, calyspersistent, caylex lobes 5, obovate, densely hairy, and prickly. Corolla broadly ovate-triangular, lobes-5, acute, tube short, globule lobes are 10 to 12 mm long, linear-lanceolate. Filaments are 2mm long, glabrous, anthers 8 mm long. Ovary is ovoid and glabrous.

Fruits – Berries are globose with persistent calyx, young fruits are greenish with white stripes. It turns yellow when mature.

Seeds – Numerous, circular, flat, and smooth, 1to 2 mm in diameter. It can be propagated by seeds or vegetative method by stem cuttings.

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7. Ayurvedic properties

Rasa (Taste): It has tikta and Katu (bitter) taste.

Virya (Potency): It is hot in nature (ushna).

Vipaka (Post-digestive taste): The post-digestive taste is katu (bitter).

8. Chemical Constituent

Solanum Xanthocarpum plant contains alkaloids, sterols, saponins, flavonoids, and their glycosides. In addition to this, carbohydrates, fatty acids, amino acids are also present. The chemical constituent are carpesterol, solaside, solasonine, cycloartnol, campesterol, cholesterol, sitosteryl-glucoside, solasurine, chlorogenic acid, flavonal glycoside, apigenin, sitosterol, amino acid (seeds), scopolin, esculin (leaves, fruit, and root).

9. Identity, Purity, and Strength

• Foreign Matter – Not more than 2%
• Total Ash – Not more than 9%
• Acid-insoluble ash – Not more than 3%
• Alcohol-soluble extractive – Not less than 6%
• Water-soluble extractive – Not less than 16%

(Source: The Ayurvedic Pharmacopeia of India 2001)

10. Ayurvedic and Pharmacological Actions

Ayurvedic Action

The main actions of Solanum Xanthocarpum are appetizer, digestive, reduce swelling, reduce swelling, relives cough, reduce hic-cough, antiasthmatic, pain reliever, increase sweating, antipyretic, purgative, blood purifier, diuretics, uterine contraction and aphrodisiac.

• Dohsakarma – Kaphavatashamak
• Dhatukarma – Sukrarechan
• Malakarma – Rechana, mootrala

Pharmacological Action

It has antifertility, hypoglycemic, antifilarial, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antitussive, antipyretic and antitussive activity.

11. Health Benefits

It is mainly used in cough, asthma, fever, rhinitis, pain in lateral sides, worm infestation, heart disease, hic-cough, dental carrier, toothache, ear disease, hysteria, epilepsy, body ache, osteoarthritis, loss of appetite, flatulence, constipation, piles, disease related to blood, swelling, hoarseness of voice, urinary calculus, dysuria, amenorrhea, skin disease, conjunctivitis.

The whole plant is used traditionally for curing various ailments, decoction of the plant is used in gonorrhea: paste of leaves is applied to relieve pain, seeds act as expectorant in cough and asthma, roots are expectorant and diuretic, useful in the treatment of catarrhal fever, coughs, asthma and chest pain. Charka and Sushrut used the extract of entire plant and fruits in internal prescription for bronchial asthma, tympanitis, misperistalsis, piles and dysuria and for rejuvenation.

The plant is useful in fever, cough, asthma, costiveness and pain in chest. The stem, flowers and fruits are prescribed for treating burning sensation in the feet accompanied by vesicular eruptions and watery eruptions. Juices of the berries are useful in sore throat, asthma, chronic bronchitis, and for cardiac stimulation.

The hot aqueous extract of dried fruits is used for treating cough, fever, and heart disease. Juice of fruit is used in sore throats and rheumatism.

12. Therapeutic Uses

External Uses

Acne – The fruit paste is applied externally to the affected area for treating pimples and swellings.

Internal Uses

Gum Disease - Take 5 grams of each item, Kantakari fruit powder, and black mustard should be boiled along with the herb.

Throat And Muscular Pain - Taking 5 grams of fruit powder of Kantakari with water twice a day helps to treat sore throat and muscular pain.

Inflammation - Take 5 grams of Kantakari fruit powder and mix with rose water, apply this on the skin, gives relief from inflammation.

Aphrodisiac - Take 1 tbsp powder of Kantakari fruit once a day, gives relief from Aphrodisiac.

Inflammation - Take 30 ml juice of Kantakari leaves and mix 5 gm of black pepper powder, helps to treat pain and inflammation.

Respiratory Problems - Take 10 grams of Kantakari root powder and boil it with water, Drink once a day, helps to treat respiratory problems.

Lower Back Pain - Take 30 ml Kantakari root decoction daily, helps to treat lower back pain.

Cough - Solanum Xanthocarpum is the best medicine for cough, the juice prepared from the whole plant of Solanum Xanthocarpum by putapak vidhi is given with Pippali powder to treat cough.

Asthma – The mixture of 6gm of Solanum Xanthocarpum and 3 gm of asafoetida is licked with honey to cure asthma problem.

Retention of Urine – Juice of Solanum Xanthocarpum is given with honey to get relief.

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13. Official Part Used

Root and whole plant

14. Doses

Decoction – 50 to 100ml