Erect, often branched herb up to 90 cm tall with sharply quadrangular to almost 4-winged, fleshy, hollow stem. Leaves opposite, simple, subsessile; blade lanceolate, 3.5–25 cm × 1–9 cm, margin entire to slightly serrate, glabrous but rough above because of small bristles. Inflorescence a terminal, erect, many-flowered, peduncled raceme up to 40 cm long. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic; pedicel up to 1 cm long; calyx 5-lobed almost to the base, lobes ovate-oblong, 3–10 mm long, overlapping at anthesis, persistent in fruit; corolla deep red-purple, glandular hairy, with wide tube and 2 lips 1–3 cm long, upper lip erect, broadly rounded, emarginate, lower lip patent, rounded, 3-fid; stamens 4, didynamous, filaments with a disk-like appendage; ovary superior, 2-celled, style filiform, stigma 2-lobed. Fruit a subglobose capsule up to 1 cm in diameter, many-seeded. Seeds ellipsoid-globose, yellow-brown, tuberculate. Seedling with epigeal germination; hypocotyl 3–7 mm long, epicotyl very short; cotyledons rhomboid, 4–5 mm long, leafy.

Antipyretic

PROTAbase: Artanema longifolium

An aqueous extract of the plant is a component of Ayurvedic medicines used against inflammations of the skeleto-muscular system. It is also used against nausea. The herb also helps to improve vitality and treat aging-related problems.