Banchalita is an erect gergarious shrub with angular stem swollen above the nodes and internodes. Petioles and peduncles usually have narrow crisped wings. Leaves are pinnately compound - not double-pinnate like Bandicoot Berry. Leaflets are 3-5, laterals opposite, ovate or ovate-oblong, serrate, tip sharp, base rounded or heart-shaped. Flowers, 5-6 mm across, greenish white, are borne in short, cymes at the end of branches. Calyx united, cup-like, teeth 5, obscure, often glandular-tipped. Petals 5, connate, 2-3 mm long, ovate, acute. Stamens 5, united; staminal tube 5-lobes, 2-celled. Ovary inserted on the disc; style short; stigma 2-lobed. Leaf extract is mixed with water and used for washing hair by Chiru tribe in NE India. Flowering: September.
Medicinal uses: Root tuber is used against guineaworms. The root with bark of Boswellia serrata is made into paste which is prescribed in case of snake-bite by the tribes of Hazaribag district of Bihar.