Distribution and habitat: Found throughout India, SriLanka, Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, China. 

Botany: Straggling or climbing herb, 1-2 m high; stem rough, with prickles on the angles, rarely smooth. Branches quadrangular, hispid with long internodes. 

• Leaves : Simple, in fours, long petioled, oblong or ovate, acute, more or less cordate, 3-7 nerved, margins, middle nerve and petioles rough with minute prickles, petiole 3-7 cm long.
• Flowers : Greenish-white, pinkish, yellowish or purplish, in axillary or terminal panicle, trichotomous cymes with long, scabrid peduncles. stamens 5, epipetalous, with filaments upto 0.7 cm long and oblong, basifixed anthers at the throat of the corolla tube.
• Fruits : Purplish black, upto 0.4 cm across, globose or didymous;
• Seeds :  Albuminous.

Properties:  The roots are sweet, bitter, astringent, thermogenic, anti-inflammatory, anodyne, antiseptic, digestive, carminative, constipating, antidysentric, and depurative.

Chemical constituents: Purpurin, manjistin

Uses:

• A plant dye. Root and stem are used in colouring. Purpurin and manjustin are used for dyeing blankets and carpets.
• Root is used in inflammations, ulcers, urinary discharges, jaundice, and piles.
• Leaves to cure biliousness.
• Fruit in diseases of the spleen.

Formulations: Mahamanjiahthadi kasayam, Karanjadi, Pinda-taila, Manjisthaardak

Propagation:  Seeds