Distribution and habitat: Throughout   Peninsular India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia, West Malaysia, Westen Ghats, in Tamilnadu and Kerala (Malappuram, Trichur, Pathanamthitta, Trivandrum districts).

Botany: A woody climbing shrub with thick ligneous and cylindrical stem, externally yellowish brown and internally yellow and longitudinally fluted and with branches. 

• Leaves: Simple, alternate, oblong-deltoid, petioled, cordate, entire, 5-7 nerved, smooth and shining above, minutely tomentose beneath, very hoary below, acuminate or obtuse. Petioles downy, shorter than the leaves, 5-15 cm long, brownish tomentose first, often swollen at both ends, geniculate at base.
• Flowers: Yellow or greenish, unisexual in small globular heads, finely tomentose, numerous, sub sessile, villous, of an obscure green, divaricately branched inflorescence.
• Fruit: Berries round, villous, size of a large filbert. Single seeded, whitish or green, sub globose, longitudinally ridged. Ripened during September - November.

Properties: Thermogenic, anodyne, ophthalmic, anti-inflammatory, antiseptic

Chemical constituents: Stem and roots contain berberin, jatrorrhizine and palmatine, saponins and some resinous materials.

Uses: Diabetes, jaundice, ulcer ophthalmopathy, inflammations, wounds, ulcers, skin diseases, abdominal disorders, fever and general debility to arrest excessive bleeding wounds, debility, fever and dyspepsia. The wood decoction is used as a remedy to prevent tetanus. The root is used for dressing wounds and ulcers.

Propagation: Seed, Stem cutting