Plant Name        Jasminum malabaricum              

                Common name:          Malabar Jasmine           

                Marathi:                       kusar,ran mogra           

                Hindi:  

                English:                      Wild jasmine   

                Jawhar:               

Identification guide

General

It is a large climber, growing up to 3-5 m. Woody stems are 4 cm thick. Slender branches are spreading and trailing. Scandent shrubs.

Leaves 

 Leaves simple, oppositely arranged membranous leaves 8-10 x 6-7.2 cm, ovate, apex abruptly shortly acuminate, base truncate or subcordate; The base of the leaf is either rounded or heart-shaped, lateral nerves 8-9 pairs slender; petiole 1 cm long, jointed above the base."

Flowers

Fragrant white flowers appear in many flowered lax trichotomously brached terminal cymes; the flowers appear in branched cymes at the end of branches, up to 50 in a single cyme, bracts 6-8 mmm long, linear subulate; pedicels 6-8 mm long. Calyx 1.2 cm long, lobes 5-7, subulate, pubescent. Petals are 6-10, 2 cm long, lance-like and spreading. Corolla white, tube 2 cm long, lobes 6-10, oblong or lanceolate, acute, 2 cm long.

Fruits

Fruit 1-1.2 x 0.8-1 cm, ovoid, drying black, single or paired.

Habit / Habitat

Scandent shrubs. Jasminum Malabaricum prefers full sun to partial shade. The plant doesn’t like to be dried out for any length of time, and also does not like sitting in water but prefers moist soil .It requires frequent pruning to keep shape.               

Occurrence

Native to southern parts of India, and Sri Lanka, In India it is found in the Western Ghats, State – Kerala, District/s: Wayanad, Kasaragode, Kannur, Palakkad, Kozhikkode. 

Edible parts       

Used by tribal community in Jawhar :    Fruits

Method of consumption

Jawhar tribal:    Fruits consumed directly

Nutritional and medicinal information

Jasminum malabaricum can also be used for the treatment of Cataract, as a blood purifier and in cosmetic and detergent industries. It is known for its ethno medicinal importance like antibacterial, antioxidant, blood purifier, anti-tumor properties. The extensive exploitation of this species has led to reduction of its natural population. Owing to its attributes callus culture studies was carried out using Murashige and Skoog medium with different combinations and concentrations of BAP, NAA and 2,4D. The leaves and stem segments were used as explants for callus growth and leaves responded significantly to produce callus. The total phenolics present in the callus culture were estimated.

Posari leaves contained 25.72% dry matter (DM), 93.60% organic matter (OM), 14.43% crude protein (CP), 3.20% ether extract (EE), 21.36% crude fiber (CF), 54.61% nitrogen free extract (NFE), 1.4% acid insoluble ash (AIA), 40.47% neutral detergent fiber (NDF), 30.70% acid detergent fiber (ADF), 15.50% acid detergent lignin (ADL), 15.20% cellulose, 9.77% hemicellulose, 5.50% lignin, 0.66% calcium, 0.28% phosphorus and 1.17% tannin.

Classification

Kingdom:            Plantae

Division:              Spermatophyta

Sub-division:     Angiospermae

Class:                    Monocotyledonae

Sub-Class:           Gamopetalae

Series:                  Bicarpellatae

Order:                   Gentianales

Family:                 Oleaceae

Genus:                 Jasminum

 Species:              malabaricum

References

https://mybageecha.com/collections/buy-flowering-plants/products/jasminum-malabaricum

https://ajaytaobotanicalblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/jasminum-malabaricum-malabar-jasmine-ajaytao/

https://www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/20133154172 :

Nutritional evaluation of Posari (Jasminum malabaricum) leaves in goats.

http://www.wikiwand.com/en/Jasminum_malabaricum