A robust, erect herb, 1-3 m in height, cultivated as an annual. Stem grooved, usually adpressed, with medifixed grey hairs; leaves 3-foliolated, sometimes simple; leaflets elliptic, 3-7 cm x 1.5-5cm, hairy on both sides; flowers small, white or purplish, typically papilionaceous, in axillary, 6-30-flowered, close racemes; pods linear, in stiff, erect clusters, compressed with double ridge on dorsal side and single ridge below, 4-13cm long, beaked, 5-12-seeded; seeds white or grey to black, 5mm long.

Laxative and antibilious (fruit); hypoglycemic and induces low blood lipids (gum); retards growth in rats, as a chemotherapeutic agent against smallpox (seed).

Alternative Field Crops Manual

3-epikatonic acid, galactomannan and a saponin.

Removes biliousness and night-blindness (fruit); in curing sprains and swellings (soaked seeds); for the plague, enlarged livers, head-swellings and on swellings due to broken bones (boiled seeds)

The plant is reported to cause contact dermatitis on the hands and face and other exposed parts.

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