Jivanti
Jivanti or Dodi, is a member of Asclepiadaceae plant family.
A much-branched twining shrub; stems with corky deeply cracked bark and mainly found on the hedges. The flowering season is June to August. The flowers are small, greenish yellow in colour, in umbillate cymes. Calyx 5 lobed. Follicles are smooth, turgid, tapering to a short curved beak. The seeds are comose.
Root: External surface of root is rough, white or buff coloured with longitudinal ridges and furrows. It is tasteless and odourless. Microscopically the presence of wide cork, lignified stone cells layer in the phelloderm, sclerized stone layer in outer secondary phloem, interxylary islets of phloem and uni- to multiseriate rays characterize the root. The roots are white or buff coloured.
Stem: Stem, with an ash coloured or buff white exterior, bears vertically elongated lenticels, whitish smooth interior and possesses a camphor like smell. The presence of rhytidomes, phelloderm with scattered stone cells, lignified stone cells in outer phloem, intraxylary phloem and non-articulated laticifiers are the miscroscopic distinguishing characters of the stem.
Leaf: Leaves are thin, coriaceous or lanceolate with hairy surface and leathery texture. The leaves have sunken, and more or less finely pubescent beneath.
Usage
The whole plant is used, the plant is restorative, and general tonic. The plant contains a triterpenoid, leptadenol.
