Malabar nut is a small evergreen, subherbacious bush. The leaves are 10 to 16 cm in length, minutely pubescent and broadly lanceolate. When the leaves are dried, they appear dull brownish green in color and taste bitter. The inflorescence is dense, short pedunculate, bractate and spike terminal. The corolla is large and white, with lower lip streaked purple. The fruit is a 4-seeded small capsule. The stomata in the plant are elongated and oval in shape. The plant has been used in India for over 200 years. It is commonly cultivated in the tropics in the country.

Plant 
The chief alkaloid present in the leaves of Malabar nut is a quinazoline alkaloid, vasicine; the yield of the alkaloid from different samples in India ranged from 0.541 to 1.105 per cent on dry basis. Vasicine is accompanied by l- vasicinone, deoxyvasicine and maiontone. Some minor alkaloids viz. Vasicol, adhatodinine and vasicinol also present. The roots of the plant contain vasicinolone, vasicol, peganine, hydroxy oxychalcone and glucosyl oxychalcone. The flowers of the plant contain b-sitosterol-D-glucoside, kaempferol, glyco

Vasaka is tall, dense, evergreen herbaceous shrub. Trunk of this shrub has numerous, long, opposite and ascending branches. This plant contains yellow colored bark. Leaves are lance shaped, oppositely arranged and smooth edged with short petioles. Leaves are bitter tasting and when dried color changes to dull brownish green. Leaves are rich in alkaloid compound vasicine. Inflorescence show dense, large and auxiliary spikes and flowers are usually white and purple in color. Fruits are pubescent with club shaped capsules.

General Information

Vasa, also known as Vasaka, is herb naturally known to be very effective in the management of respiratory problems like cough, asthma etc. It is also a potent anti - microbial agent and has many cooling properties as well.

Vasicine is one of the active extracts obtained from this plant which gives the herb its many medicinal properties.

For its remarkable action as a natural expectorant, vasa is found to be very effective in the management of many respiratory system disorders and may even bring relief for many patients of Tuberculosis.

Despite its great medicinal value, over dosage of its herbal extract may lead to many ill effects and therefore, it should only be used under medical supervision.

Vasicine is one of the many compounds extracted from this plant and is studied for its anti - microbial, anti - ulcer, hepatoprotective and anti - oxidant activity. Other chemicals present in this herb are Vascicinine, Luteolin, Tritriacontane, Carotene, Vasakin, Vasicinone, Vascicolone, Vasicolinone etc.

Habitat

It is a very common herbaceous plant in India and grows in most parts of the Indian subcontinent. It is also distributed throughout Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and china, as well in panama.

Classification

• Kingdom - Plantae
• Order - Lamiales
• Family - Acanthaceae

Names

• Sanskrit - Vasaka
• Latin name - Adhatoda vasica
• English - Malabar nut
• Hindi - Adusa, Arusha, Bansa
• Telugu - Vasa, Addasaramu, Adamkabu
• Tamil name – Adhathodai
• Marathi - Adulsa
• Gujarati name - Araduso, Adulso
• Kannada name - Adusogae, Adu muttada soppu
• Bengali name - Adusa, Bakash, Vasok
• Punjabi name - Vamsa, Bhekkar
• Nepali name - Asuro, Kalo, Vasak
• Oriya name - Basanga, Arusa, Basung
• Assamese name - Titabahak, Bahak
• Konkani name - Adusoge
• Persian name - Bansa

Ayurvedic Properties

Hindi / Sanskrit		English
Rasa	Kashay, Tikta	Taste	Astringent, Bitter
Guna	Laghu, Tikshna	Physical Property	Light, Sharp
Virya	Sheet	Potency	Cold
Vipaka	Katu	Metabolic Property (After Digestion)	Pungent

Effects On Doshas

It balances pitta and Kapha doshas.

Charak Samhita	Sushrut Samhita
Tikta skanda - Herbs which are bitter in taste.	Daruvadi gana