It is a perennial climbing herb with slender, terete and downy stems. Leaves are pinnately 3 to 7 foliolate; leaflets are ovate or oblong, obtuse and subcoriaceous. The flowers are showy, blue or white and solitary or axillary. The bracteoles are large and obtuse. Calyx teeth are lanceolate and as long as the tube. Petals are unequal. Style is bearded below the stigma. The pods are linear and compressed. The seeds are 6 to 10, black and smooth.

Acrid, laxative (seed, root and its bark), diuretic (root bark), alexiteric, anthelmintic, purgative, demulcent, tonic, alleviates spasms (root).

Amino acids (root); anthocyanins (flower); sitosterol and flavonoids (leaf).

To treat oedema, mental disorder, goiter, vitiligo, snake-poisoning, toothache, eye disease, as aphrodisiac, filaria, leprosy (plant juice); dysentery, severe bronchitis, asthma, consumption, ascites and abdominal enlargement.

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