FoI
Dysentery Bush
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Dysentery Bush
P Native Photo: Nidhan Singh
Common name: Dysentery Bush, Emu-berry, Turkey bush • Marathi: गोवली Govli • Telugu: Chinnacheepuru, Chinnacipuru
Botanical name: Grewia polygama    Family: Tiliaceae (Falsa family)
Synonyms: Grewia lancifolia, Grewia polygama var. elliptica

Dysentery Bush is a shrub or small tree up to 5 m tall with a trunk around 10cm in diameter. Leaves are lanceshaped, sawtoothed, hairy, 3-nerved from the base, about 10 cm long, 2.5 cm broad. Flower-cluster-stalks arise in leaf axils, longer than the flower-stalks. Each cluster has 4-6 white flowers. Petals are oblong with entire tips, sepals linear twice as long as petals. Stamens are numerous. In the female flowers, style is longer than the stamens. Berries are 4-celled, each cell about the size of a small pea. The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine, food and source of wood. Dysentery Bush is native to India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam.
Medicinal uses: The leaves are soaked in water overnight, or maybe hot water is poured over them, and the liquid allowed to become cold. It forms a somewhat mucilaginous liquid and is said to be very efficacious as a remedy for diarrhoea and dysentery. The unripe fruit is astringent and can be used in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery. The root is used in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery.

Identification credit: Kishore Kaycee Photographed in Yamunanagar, Haryana.

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