It is a variable, prostrate annual. The roots are slender and cylindrical, light brown and faintly aromatic. The leaves are paripinnate; the leaflets, 5 to 8 pairs, subequal, oblong to linear-oblong. The flowers are leaf-opposed, solitary, pale-yellow to yellow; the fruits, globose, consisting of 5 to 12 woody cocci, each with 2 pairs of hard, sharp, divaricate spines, one pair longer than the other. Several seeds are seen in each coccus with transverse partitions between them.

Aphrodisiac and diuretic (fruit); alleviates spasms and stimulates the cardiovascular system, abortifacient, alterative, anthelmintic, aphrodisiac, astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, emmenagogue, galactogogue, pectoral and tonic (seed and plant); cardiotonic and enhances semen production (plant).

Herbal Monograph
PIER
Tribulus terrestris Extract: Supplement Fact or Fiction

Ascorbic acid (leaf); carboline alkaloids (plant and seed); astragalin, harman, ruscogenin (plant); beta-sitosterol, kaempferol, quercetin, stigmasterol (flower); doucosterol, diosgenin, rutin (shoot); glutamic acid, linoleic acid, oleic acid, palmitic acid, stearic acid (fruit); harmine (seed).

In painful urination and impotency (fruit); in treating impotency in males, nocturnal emissions, gonorrhoea, painful urination, gout, consumption, kidney problems (including kidney stones) and incontinence of urine (decoction of seed); in treating cancer and to promote hair-growth (plant); gas, headache, ophthalmia and stomatitis (dried fruit). It is being studied as a potential herbal remedy against AIDS.

In sheep consuming tribulus plant for several months, neurological disease was characterized by an irreversible, asymmetrical, weakness of the hindlimbs (Bourke et al., 1992)

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