An erect or ascending, branched perennial herb up to 150 cm tall, non-tuberous. Leaves generally ovate, 1-15 cm x 1-10 cm, membranaceous. Flowers in lax verticillasters or in irregularly branched cymes disposed in simple or branched thyrses, calyx 2-lipped, corolla about 8-13(-18) mm long, blue or violet with whitish tube. Nutlets broadly ovoid or globose, 1-1.2 mm long, shining, brown.

Anthelmintic (leaves); abortifacient and emmenagogue (leaf sap or decoction); sedative (decoction of leaves).

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

Used internally in the treatment of diarrhea and colic (roots); to treat urinary complaints and headache, and applied externally or in cataplasm to bruises and contusions (leaves); baked and squeezed whilst hot onto fresh cuts and sores (young leaves); squeezed into the eye in the case of eye injury, and rubbed on swellings (leaf sap); to treat haemorrhoids, inflamed eyes and boils (leaf sap or decoction); to stimulate digestion, to treat dyspepsia and congestion of the liver, and externally against swellings, smallpox and ophthalmia (decoction of leaves);