A much branched, straggling or erect, ever green shrub up to 2.5 m tall; bark dark brown to light grey, fissured, soft; branches and branchlets quadrangular. Leaves opposite, aromatic, succulent, generally 2 to 5 cm long and 1.3 to 2.5 cm wide, elliptic to narrowly lanceolate, apex obtuse, base acute; petioles 0.6 to 1 cm long. Flowers borne 3 to 9 flowered cymes; peduncles sledner; bracts minute, linear or subulate; calyx 5 mm long, enlarged in fruit, teeth triangular, acute; Fruit (drupe) pyriform, 1.3 to 1.6 cm long, spongy, brown, in a veined persistent calyx, separating into 4 woody pyrenes.

Stimulates "uterine motility" of rats and inhibits "intestinal motility" (plant extract); stimulates the cardiovascular system, alterative (plant).

Flavonoids, a sterol, caryoptin, cholesterol, a ketone and an aliphatic alcohol (leaf).

Healing cuts, intermittent and remittent fevers, to treat scrofula and veneral diseases. The leaves are mucilaginous, bitter and fragrant; the root, boiled in oil, is used as a liniment for treating rheumatism.

Chandel et al., Biodiversity in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India.