Plant Name Curculigo orchiodes
Common name: Golden Eye Grass, Orchid palm grass
Marathi: Kali musali
Hindi: Kali musli/ Krishna musli
English: Golden eye grass
Jawhar: Kali musali
Identification guide
General
Curculigo orchioides is a stemless evergreen perennial herb producing a cluster of leaves from the roots and spreading to form a clump. It grows up to 50 cm tall
Seeds
Oblong and black
Leaves
Sessile, linear, 15 -20 cm long, pointed tip
Flowers
Distichous, bright yellow
Fruits
Oblong, 10 m in diameter,
Habit / Habitat
Tropical flowering herb
The plant is naturally grown in sandy areas, grassy slopes of hills with good amount of moisture and well decayed manure.
Occurrence
Tropical Africa, India and Indo-China
Edible parts
Used by tribal community in Jawhar Fruits, roots and bark
Method of consumption
Jawhar tribal Raw fruits are consumed
Medicinal use Root extract is used to cure stomach ache.
Bark decoction is used to treat piles and cure the pain in bone joints.
Nutritional and medicinal information
Pharmaceutical significance
Literature review:
The ethanol extract of Curculigo orchioides showed a definite proactive effect against histamine-induced contraction on in vitro models like isolated goat tracheal chain preparation and isolated guinea pig ileum. Thus, the study indicated usefulness of ethanol extract of Curculigo orchioides in asthma.
The alcohol and aqueous solution of the root tuber were tested on alloxan induced rats, which showed significant hypoglycemic activity when compared to diabetic control .
The study of methanolic extract of the C. orchioides against hepatotoxic rats was conducted. The results concluded that the hepatic damage were found to acquire near- normalcy in drug co-administered rats, further substantiating the hepatoprotective potential of the plant .
- orchioides rhizome extract was evaluated against
Propagation and Storage
Season of collection
Edible: Summer
Medicinal parts: Annually
How to grow it?
Naturally, the plant is propagated by seeds and underground bulbils and could be cultivated by rhizome.
Method of storage
- Propagules: Seeds
- Edibles: Eaten immediately after harvested from wild.
Classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Spermatophyta
Sub-division: Angiospermae
Class: Monocotyledonae
Series: Coronarieae
Family: Liliaceae
Genus: Curculigo
Species: orchiodes
References
- http://www.stuartxchange.com/Taloangi.html
- http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/8005/1/NPR%205%285%29%20369-372.pdf
- http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792544/
- http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13880200601026259
- http://medind.nic.in/ibi/t02/i4/ibit02i4p269.pdf