Trees & Plants

Chaste tree

Dhunnika

Vitex negundo L.

In homesteads The leaves yield an essential oil which possesses insecticidal properties and is laid over stored grain to keep insects away. They are antimicrobial and are smoked 7 for relief of headache and catarrh. A decoction of the leaf is used in smoke baths for the treatment

Details

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uses: The leaves yield an essential oil which possesses insecticidal properties and is laid over stored grain to keep insects away. They are antimicrobial and are smoked 7 for relief of headache and catarrh. A decoction of the leaf is used in smoke baths for the treatment of febrile, catarrhal and rheumatic problems. The roots are used to 4, treat dysentery. The flowers are astringent and fruits are considered vermifuge.
family: Verbenaceae
synonym: Vitex spicata Lour.
description: Shrubs or small trees; purple pubescent all over, aromatic. Leaves × 3-5-foliolate; leaflets 6-13 2-5 cm, narrowly oblong or elliptic to lanceolate, base acute, apex acuminate. Panicles terminal, 10-25 cm long. Calyx 5-toothed, obconic, ca. 3 mm long, teeth triangular. Corolla Th greenish white, deep purple to violet, ca. 7 for mm across, hypocrateriform; tube 3-5 mm long, puberulent without, upper lip 2-lobed, lower 3-lobed with the middle lobe larger, for obovate, undulate-margined, other lobes shorter, subequal, obtuse. Stamens 4, filaments purple. Ovary ca. 1 mm long; style purple; stigma 2-fid. Drupe 3-5 mm across, globose, purple or black.
native range: Tropical East and South Africa and Asia
distribution: Cultivated throughout the tropics
english names: Chaste tree · Five-leaved chaste tree · Negundo
flowering fruiting: February - July
occurrence maldives: In homesteads