Volkameria inermis

 Scientific name: Volkameria inermis L.

Family: Verbenaceae

Synonym: Clerodendrum inerme (L.) Gaertn.

Bengali/Vernacular name: Ban jui, Batraj, Bakri, Koklata (Bengali); Titamendi (Noakhali).

Tribal name: Chia-chendrem (Khasia), Kikhuima (Tripura).

English name: Garden quinine, Glory bower, Wild jasmine.

Description of the plant: An erect to scandent or sometimes trailing shrub, much-branched, branches slender, greyish-brown, lenticellate, glabrous. Leaves simple, opposite, 3-6 cm long, elliptic-ovate or ovate-lanceolate. Flowers in axillary pedunculate cymes; corolla white, tube long, slender, reaching 2.5 cm long. Fruit a drupe, pear-shaped, 4-lobed, enclosed by enlarged persistent calyx.

Plant parts used: Leaf and stem.

Medicinal uses: Decoction of leaves and stems is used as a substitute for quinine and Swertia chirata in the treatment of intermittent and remittent fevers and also used in to treat venereal disease, as a bath in itches.

Distribution: It occurs in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Noakhali, Khulna and along the coastal region of Sundarbans forest, and also in off-shore islands.

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