Distribution and habitat: Found throughout India.

Botany:  A slightly woody shrub with bluntly quadrangular stems and branches. 

• Leaves: Usually 3 at a node, some times opposite, oblong or elliptic, coarsely and sharply serrate. Petioles 6mm long.
• Flowers: Blue, many, in long dichotomous cymes with a pair of acute bracts at each branching and a flower in the fork. Calyx 5 mm long, cup shaped, corolla pale blue, tube 1 cm long, cylindric.
• Fruits: 4- lobed purple drupe, some what succulent with one pyrene in each lobe.

Properties: Antispasmolytic, expectorant, carminative

Chemical constituents: Plants contain saponin and manitol. Root bark yields saponin, manitol and stigmasterol.

Uses: It is used in cough, anasarca, dyspnoea, expectorant, flatulence, consumption, chronic nasitis cephalalgia, and ophthalmia (external application)

Formulations: Ayaskrti, Bharngyadi kasayam

Propagation: Seed, stem cuttings