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Botanical Name |
: |
Abrus precatorius L. |
English
Name |
: |
Indian Liquorice Root, Rosary pea, crab’s eyes, precatory pea, licorice vine |
Synonym(s) |
: |
Abrus abrus (L.) W. Wight. |
Family |
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Fabaceae |
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General Info
| Description |
 |
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Abrus precatorius is a slender, perennial climber that twines around trees, shrubs, and hedges. It has no special organs of attachment. It has a slender branch and a cylindrical wrinkled stem with a smooth-textured brown bark. Leaves are glabrous with long internodes. Leaves alternate petioled, 5-13 cm (2-5 in) long, even-pinnately compound with 5-15 pairs of leaflets, these oval to oblong, to 1.8 cm (< 1 in) long, with margins entire. Flowers are small and pale violet in colour with a short stalk, arranged in clusters. The ovary has a marginal placentation. The fruit, which is a pod, is flat, oblong and truncate-
shaped with a sharp deflexed beak is about 3 to 4.5 cm long, 1.2 cm wide, and silky-textured. Each fruit contains from 3 to 5 oval-shaped seeds, about 0.6 cm. |
| Herb Effects |
|
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Cytotoxic and anthelmintic (seed); antiestrogenic (root); stimulates the cardiovascular system (aerial part); Abortifacient (seed and root), anodyne, aphrodisiac, antimicrobial, diuretic, emetic, expectorant, febrifuge, hemostat, laxative, purgative, refrigerant, sedative, vermifuge, anti-fertility activity (Prakash & Mathur, 1976), antitumour activity |
Chemistry
| Active Ingredients |
|
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Abrin, anthocyanin, campesterol, choline, cycloartenol, gallic acid, trigonelline (seed); precol, abrol, abrasine and precasine (root); delphinidin (plant); glycyrrhizin (leaf, root). |
| Chemistry
of Active Ingredients |
|
|
|
 |
Name |
CAS# |
IUPAC Name |
Formula |
Structure |
 |
|
| Abrin |
1393-62-0 |
Not Available |
Not Available |
|
| Abrol |
8055-08-1 |
N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)e
thanamide |
C8H9NO2 |
|
| Precol |
Not available |
Not available |
C37H70O4 |
|
| Abrasine |
Not available |
Not available |
C18H21N3O3 |
|
| Campesterol |
474-62-4 |
17-(5,6-dimethylhept
an-2-yl)-10,13-dimet
hyl-2,3,4,7,8,9,11,1
2,14,15,16
,17-dode
cahydro-1H-cyclopent
a[a]phenanthren-3-ol |
C28H48O |
|
| Choline |
67-48-1 |
2-hydroxyethyl-trime
thyl-ammonium |
C5H14NO+ |
|
| Cycloartenol |
Not Available |
Not Available |
C30H50O |
|
| Gallic acid |
149-91-7 |
3,4,5-trihydroxybenz
oic acid |
C7H6O5 |
|
| Trigonelline |
6138-40-5 |
1-methylpyridine-5-c
arboxylate |
C7H7NO2 |
|
| Delphinidin |
528-53-0 |
[3,7-dihydroxy-2-(3,
4,5-trihydroxyphenyl
)-chromen-5-ylidene]
oxonium ch
loride |
C15H11ClO7 |
|
| Glycyrrhizin |
53956-04-0 |
6-[(11-carboxy-4,4,6
a,6b,8a,11,14b-hepta
methyl-14-oxo-2,3,4a
,5,6,7,8,9
,10,12,1
2a,14a-dodecahydro-1
H-picen-3-yl)oxy]-5-
(6-carboxy-3,4,5-tri
hy
droxy-oxan-2-yl)
oxy-3,4-dihydroxy-ox
ane-2-carboxylic
acid |
C42H62O16 |
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Pharmacology
| Medicinal Use |
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Cough, cold and colic (root decoction); as a nervine tonic, abortifacient, in stomach ulcers, skin maladies, diarrhea and dysentery (seed); in paralysis and sciatica (seed paste) and swellings (leaf juice), for inflammed eyes (leaves), seed paste is applied locally in sciatica, stiffness of shoulder joint and paralysis. |
| Contraindication |
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Pillay et al., 2005 report an unusual case of poisoning involving the white seed variety of Abrus precatorius that caused serious manifestations in a middle-aged male who had consumed the seeds on the advice of a folk medicine practitioner.
Abrin,a toxic protein obtained from the seeds of Abrus precatorius (jequirity bean), cause gastrointestinal toxicity.
|
| Reference |
|
|
 Chandel et al., Biodiversity in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India.)
Chen YL, Chow LP, Tsugita A, Lin JY. The Complete Primary Structure of Abrin-a B Chain. FEBS Lett 1992;309:115-118.
Johnson T. Medicinal Plants (Bentley and Trimen); CRC Ethnobotany Desk Reference.
Kimura M, Sumizawa T, Funatsu G. The complete amino acid sequences of the B-chains of abrin-a and abrin-b, toxic proteins from the seeds of Abrus precatorius. Biosci Biotechnol Biochem 1993;57:166-169.
Olsnes S, Pihl A Kinetics of binding of the toxic lectins abrin and ricin to surface receptors of human cells. J Biol Chem 1976; 251:3977-3984.
Parrotta JA, Healing plants of Peninsular India. CAB International, Wallingford, 2001, UK.944 p.
Prakash & Mathur, Indian J Exp Biol, 1976, 14, 623.
Uniyal et al., Medicinal Flora of Garhwal Himalayas. |
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