Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MS029 : Abrus precatorius L.

Plant Category : Shrubs

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : 98

Synonym : Abrus abrus (L.)Wright Abrus cyaneus R.Vig. Abrus maculatus Noronha Abrus minor Desv. Abrus pauciflorus Desv. Abrus precatorius var. novo-guineensis Miq. Abrus squamulosus E.Mey. Abrus tunguensis Lima Glycine abrus L.

Plant Common Name : Gunj, K- Gunchi, Coral bead vine, Rosary pea • Hindi: Ratti, Gunchi • Sanskrit: Gunjaa • Kannada: Gulugunji • Bengali: Gunch • Gujarati: Ratti • Tamil: kundu maNi • Marathi: Gunja

Plant Family : Fabaceae

Description : Woody perennial twining shrubs; young stems puberulent. Leaves even-pinnate; leaflets 12-16 pairs, 0.8-2.5 x 0.4-1 cm, oblong to elliptic, base and apex obtuse, lower surface sparsely pubescent. Flowers pink, in axillary racemes; bracts deltoid, minute; bracteoles c. 1mm across, suborbicular. Calyx 2-4 mm long, hispid. Petals 9-12 mm long. Stamens 9, monadelphous. Ovary subsessile, many ovuled; style incurved. Pods 3-4 x 1-1.5 cm, oblong, slightly inflated, fulvo-puberulent. Seeds many, 5-7 x 4-5 mm, subglobose, scarlet red with black eyes.

Plant Location in Melghat : -

Medicinal Use / Activity : Cough, Urinal disease, Brain tonic, abortifacient, contraceptive, emetic and irritant. The seeds are also antiperiodic, bitter, aphrodisiac, diaphoretic, emetic, expectorant and purgative. The seeds are used externally in the treatment of sciatica, hair loss, skin disease, leprosy, nervous debility and paralysis. The roots have been used to treat digestive disorders. The stem bark is emollient. A decoction is used as a treatment for stomach-ache, thrush, colds, coughs, sore throat and asthma. An extract of the bark is used as a treatment for cancer treatment

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: abrin; stigmasterol; beta-stigmasterol; abrusogenin; Monoglyceride; Triglyceride; abrol; abrasine; precol; precasine; Abraline; Abrasine; Abricin; Abrin; Abrusgenic-acid; Abrusgenic-acid-methyl-ester; Abruslactone; Abrussic-acid; Anthocyanins; Calcium; Campesterol; Choline; Cycloartenol; Delphinidin; Gallic-acid; Glycyrrhizin; Hypaphorine; N, N-dimethyl-tryptophan; N,N-dimethyltryptophan-metho-cation-methyl-ester; P-coumaroylgalloyl glucodelphinidin; Pectin; Pentosans; Phosphorus; Gallic-acid; Hypaphorine; N,N-dimethyl-tryptophan; N,N-dimethyl-tryptophan-methocation-methyl-ester; P-coumaroylgalloyl-lucodelphinidin; Pectin; Pentosans; Phosphorus; Picatorine; Polygalacturonic-acids; Precasine; Precatorine;

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (3):

Delphinidin;

Glycyrrhizin;

Stigmasterol;

Plant's Current Status : Rare

Plant's Cross Database Reference : 259142

Reference : Dhore M. A. (1984) The flora of melghat tiger reserve - https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/32002 - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Gunj.html - http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Abrus+precatorius - https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259297602 - https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9903/aba62f9520ae132d77ab76b917ff35fa664d.pdf

Reference : ~ Taur DJ and Patil RY; "Mast cell stabilizing and antiallergic activity of Abrus precatorius in the management of asthma"; Asian Pac J Trop Med (2011); 4(1): 46-49 PMID : 21771414

~ Jennifer L. McCracken, Sreenivas P. Veeranki, Bill T. Ameredes, William J. Calhoun; "Diagnosis and Management of Asthma in Adults - A Review"; JAMA (2017); 318(3): 279-290 PMID : 28719697

~ Dnyaneshwar J. Taur, Rajendra N. Patil, and Ravindra Y. Patil; "Antiasthmatic related properties of Abrus precatorius leaves on various models"; J Tradit Complement Med (2017 ); 7(4): 428-432 PMID : 29034190

~ Holaly E. Gbekley, Gnatoulma Katawa, Simplice D. Karou, SKokou Anani, Tchacondo Tchadjobo, Yaovi Ameyapoh, Komlan Batawila, and Jacques Simpore; "Ethnobotanical Study Of Plants Used To Treat Asthma In The Maritime Region In Togo"; Afr J Tradit Complement Altern Med. (2017); 14(1): 196-212 PMID : 28480398

~ Chellaiah Muthu, Muniappan Ayyanar, Nagappan Raja and Savarimuthu Ignacimuthu; "Medicinal plants used by traditional healers in Kancheepuram District of Tamil Nadu, India"; Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (2006); 2(43): 1-10 PMID :

~ Chen S; "Natural products triggering biological targets - a review of the anti-inflammatory phytochemicals targeting the arachidonic acid pathway in allergy asthma and rheumatoid arthritis."; Curr Drug Targets (2011); 12(3): 288-301 PMID : 20955151

~ Park HS, Kim SR, Kim JO and Lee YC; "The roles of phytochemicals in bronchial asthma"; Molecules (2010); 15(10): 6810-34 PMID : 20924320

~ Omolola Temitope Fatokun, Tosin Ejiro Wojuola, Kevwe Benefit Esievo and Oluyemisi Folashade Kunle; "Medicinal plants used in the management of Asthma: A review"; EJPMR (2016); 3(7): 82-92 PMID :

~ Balaji Kasirajan, Rajadurai Maruthamuthu, Vidhya Gopalakrishnan, Krithika Arumugam, Hudson Asirvatham, Vidya Murali, Ramya Mohandass and Anusha Bhaskar; "A database for medicinal plants used in treatment of asthma"; Bioinformation (2007); 2(3): 105-106 PMID :

~ J. Lenin Bapuji and S. Venkat Ratnam; "Traditional Uses of Some Medicinal Plants by tribals of Gangaraju Madugula Mandal of Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh"; Ethnobotanical Leaflets (2009); 13: 388-98 PMID :

~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID :

~ Anamika Das, Vernika Jain and Amarnath Mishra; "A brief review on a traditional herb: abrus precatorius (L.)"; International Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicological Sciences (2016); 1(1):1-10 PMID :

~ Manisha Bhatia, Siddiqui NA and Sumeet Gupta; "Abrus Precatorius (L.): An Evaluation of Traditional Herb"; Indo American Journal of Pharmaceutical Research (2013); 3(4): 3295-3315 PMID :

~ Avni G. Desai, Ghulam N. Qazi, Ramesh K. Ganju, Mahmoud El-Tamer, Jaswant Singh, Ajit K. Saxena, Yashbir S. Bedi, Subhash C. Taneja, and Hari K. Bhat; "Medicinal Plants and Cancer Chemoprevention"; Curr Drug Metab. (2008); 9(7): 581–591 PMID :

~ Das, DC.; Sinha, NK.; Chattopadhyay JC.; Das M. and Samanta P.; "The use of medicinal plants for the treatment of Gonorrhea and Syphilis in south west Bengal of India"; International Journal of Phytomedicine (2013); 5: 14-17 PMID :

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass : Rosidae
Order : Fabales
Family : Fabaceae / Leguminosae - Pea family
Genus : Abrus Adans. - abrus
Species : Abrus precatorius L. - rosarypea

Abrus precatorius L. - rosarypea
Abrus precatorius L. - rosarypea
Abrus precatorius L. - rosarypea
Abrus precatorius L. - rosarypea
Abrus precatorius L. - rosarypea