A bushy or a climbing and branching, pubescent perennial herb, often grown as an annual, up to 6 m tall, with a well developed tap-root with many laterals and well developed adventitious roots. Leaves alternate, trifoliolate; leaflets broadly ovate, 5-15 cm x 4-15 cm, entire, subglabrous or soft hairy. Inflorescences stiff axillary racemes with many flowers; peduncle 4-23 cm long, often compressed, glabrescent; rachis 2-24 cm long; flowers arising 1-5 together from tubercles on rachis; pedicels short, square, sparsely pubescent; flowers white, pink, red or purple; stamens diadelphous (9 + 1); ovary sessile, 10 mm long, finely pubescent; style abruptly upturned, 8 mm long; stigma capitate, glandular. Pods variable in shape and colour, flat or inflated, 5-20 cm x 1-5 cm, straight or curved, usually with 3-6 ovoid seeds of varying colour and size.

Anticholesterolemic, antidote (to most forms of poison), antivinous, carminative and hypoglycaemic (plant); antivinous, alexiteric and carminative (flowers); anthelmintic, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac, astringent, digestive, febrifuge and stomachic (dried and roasted seeds).

Plants For A Future
PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

Alpha-linolenic acid, arginine, aspartic acid, beta-carotene, cystine, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, lauric acid, leucine, linoleic acid, lysine, methionine, oleic acid, palmitic acid, palmitoleic acid, phenylalanine, riboflavin, serine, stearic acid, thiamin, threonine, tryptophan, tyrosine, valine (seed); ascorbic acid, niacin (fruit); myristic acid, palmitoleic acid (plant)

Used in the treatment of cholera, vomiting, diarrhoea, leucorrhoea, gonorrhoea, alcoholic intoxication and globefish poisoning (plant); in the treatment of cholera (stem); to treat inflamed ears and throats (juice from the pods); in the treatment of sunstroke, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, enteritis, abdominal pain, alcoholism and arsenism (dried and roasted seeds).