An erect herbaceous annual herb, which is branched and rather stout. it can grow up to 1.5 m in height, and is usually 0.5-1.0 m tall. It has a long tap root, with a few secondary roots with root hairs. Stems and leaf petioles are thickly glandular and rarely glabrous. Leaves are alternate, digitately palmate and petiolate. Each leaf has 3-7 leaflets, but most commonly 5 (rarely 3-4), which are pinnately dissected and sessile. They vary from obovate to elliptic in shape, and are usually 2-10 cm long and 2-4 cm wide. They are sparsely hairy, but this is variable, and they have finely toothed margins or round ends. The petioles are 3-23 cm long, the cotyledonary leaves have single leaflets, and leaves are oppositely arranged on the stem. The flowers measure 1-2.5 cm in diameter, and have 4 sepals, 4 narrow clawed petals, and 6 stamens with long purple filaments, arising from a much elongated receptacle. The sepals are ovate to lanceolate, measuring up to 8 mm in length, and are glandular. The fruit is a long-stalked, dry, dehiscent silique, which is a spindle-shaped capsule measuring up to 12 cm long and 8-10 mm wide. Seeds are small, suborbicular and sharply tuberculate, with many concentric ribs and irregular cross-ribs.

Alleviates spasms and anticancer (50% EtOH plant extract); anthelmintic and rubefacient (seed); analgesic (leaf sap); antipyretic (root decoction)

Promoting the conservation and use of underutilized and neglected crops.11.
PIER
Plants for a Future

Hexacosanol, glucocapparin, kaempferol, beta-sitosterol and its glucosides (seed).

Used as a poutice on sores infested with maggots (seed paste); curing coughs (infusion); to cure diseases such as scurvy, to improve eyesight, provide energy and cure marasmus (leaves); squeezed into ears, nostrils and eyes to treat epileptic fits and earache (leaf sap); facilitate childbirth in pregnant women, treat stomach-ache and constipation, treat severe thread-worm infection, relieve chest pains (boiled leaves or roots); in the treatment of scorpion stings and snake bites (plant).

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