Bauhinia variegata

HABIT: The mountain ebony, Bauhinia variegata L. belongs to the family Leguminosae. It is distributed throughout India, ascending to an altitude of 1300 in the Himalayas. It is widely planted in the tropics and warm regions of the world. Bauhinia variegata is a medium-sized deciduous tree. The bark of the plant is grayish brown externally and pale-pink inside and the external surface is rough because of large number of longitudinal cracks and fissures. The leaves are 10-15 cm long and broad, subcoriaceous and deeply cordate. The flowers are large, fragrant, white or purplish, appearing when the tree is leafless. The pods are 15-30 by 1.8-2.5 cm hard, flat, dehiscent and 10-15 seeded.

(Sahu, G., & Gupta, P. K. (2012). A review on Bauhinia variegata Linn. International research Journal of pharmacy, 3(1), 48-51.)

CONSERVATION STATUS: Evaluated as 'Least Concern' by IUCN.

MEDICINAL USES: The leaves are rich in reducing sugar and have good nutritive value for the healthy development of tasar silk worms. The leaves are used for the preparation of biddies. The root is carminative and used in dyspepsia and flatulence and as an antidote to snake poison.1The bark is astringent, tonic, anthelmintic, scrofula and skin diseases. The flowers and flower buds are used as a vegetables and laxative. The juice of flower is used to treat diarrhea, dysentery and other stomach disorders. The dried buds are used for the treatment of diarrhea and dysentery, worms, piles and tumours. Ayurvedic literature claim the plant is reported to have Kasaya rasa, Ruksha guna, Shita virya and Katu vipaka. The stem bark of B. variegata is used in the treatment of krinnroga (worm infection), gandamala (scrofula), apaci (cervical lymphadenitis) and vrna (wounds).

(Sahu, G., & Gupta, P. K. (2012). A review on Bauhinia variegata Linn. International research Journal of pharmacy, 3(1), 48-51.)

ETHNOBOTANICAL USES: Bauhinia variegata is being utilized traditionally as a food, feed or for medicinal purposes. In terms of food; its fower buds, fower petals are utilized for curry or pakora preparation, whereas the leaves, fower buds (opened and unopened) are being utilized also for the feed purposes of the milching animals. Traditionally, it is being utilized as a medicine for curing of obesity, glandular infammation, dysentery, and menorrhagia etc., whereas, reducing the gastric secretion level (Rajkapoor et al. 2003), headache during malarial fever, treatment of dyspepsia, stomachache. 

(Sharma, K., Kumar, V., Kumar, S., Sharma, R., & Mehta, C. M. (2021). Bauhinia variegata: a comprehensive review on bioactive compounds, health benefits and utilization. Advances in Traditional Medicine, 21, 645-653.)