An erect, sparsely-branched, perennial herb up to 1.8 m tall, finely downy with hooked hairs. Leaves very variable, imparipinnate, 15 to 25 cm long (including the petiole); petioles 3.8 to 6.3 cm long, striate, downy; stipules 1.2 cm long, triangular, long-acuminate, striate; leaflets on the upper part of the stem 5 to 7, rigidly subcoriaceous, 10 to 20 cm long and 1 to 2 cm wide, linear-oblong, apex acute, base rounded, blotched with white and glabrous above, finely reticulately veined and minutely pubescent beneath; leaflets on the lower part of the stem 1 to 3 foliate, suborbicular or oblong. Flowers purple, borne in fascicles along dense cylindrical racemes 15 to 30 cm long and 1.6 to 2 cm broad; rachis and pedicels downy with hooked hairs; pedicels 6 to 10 mm long, curved upwards after flowering; bracts large, concealing and buds, scarious, striate, ciliate, the upper lanceolate-acuminate, the lower ovate-acuminate, deciduous. Fruit (pod) glabrous, pale grey, joints 3 to 6 , smooth, polished, seedlike 3 mm long and 2 mm wide, folded on one another; seeds 1 to 12 kidney shaped, reddish.

Antiseptic (leaves); aphrodisiac (root).

For healing bone fractures and for the treatment of urinary diseases, tumours, oedema, burning sensation and difficult breathing (plant); to treat gonorrhoea (leaves); as an antidote for snake bite, in the treatment of anal prolapse in infants (root); for cough, chills and fevers (decoction); to treat sore mouth in children (pods).

Sharma PV. Classical Uses of Medicinal Plants.