A stout shrub, 0.9 to 1.8 m tall, with many shoots arising fromt he base; bark light brown. Leaves alternate, very variable in shape; upper leaves small, lanceolate; lower leaves large, up to 30 cm long and 25 cm wide, ovate, palmately lobed and sinuately toohted, 3 to 5 nerved at base; petiole 2 to 15 cm long, hairy with a pair of stipular glands at the apex. Flowers small, greenish-yellow, borne in axillary racemes or contracted panicles with either all male or male with a few female flowers in lower positions. Fruits (capsules) obovoid, 3-lobed, 0.8 to 1.3 cm long, usually hairy; seeds oblong, smooth, shiny, 0.6 to 0.8 cm long, mottled, with an oily endosperm.

Laxative (seed and plant); stimulates the cardiovascular system and respiration and anticancer, rubefacient (plant).

Montanin, baliospermin, 12-deoxyphorbol-13-palmitate and 12-deoxy-5B-hydroxyphorbol-13-myristate (root).

Rheumatism (seed oil); snakebite antidote (seed); to treat piles, anaemia, jaundice, skin diseases, cyst, as purgative, wound, conjunctivitis, diabetes, numbness, dropsy, general anasarca, asthma.

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