It is an armed, deciduous tree upto 7 m high with smooth bluish grey bark. Leaves are ovate - obovate or lanceolate, 2.0-6.0-1.0-4.0 cm, crowded on dwarf shoots and entire with attenuate base and obtuse apex and pubescent on both the surfaces. Flowers are uni- or bi-sexual appear before leaves; bisedual flowers are solitary and unisexual male flowers are fascicled and axillary at the ends of shoots. Calyx of male flower is shorter than female ones; limb truncate or campanulate. Corolla is salver-shaped, white -creamy and fragrant; lobes spreading and ovate. The berries are soft, ovoid, 2.0 to 3.7 cm long, and reddish brown with many compressed seeds.

Lowers blood pressure, anticancer and antiviral (50% EtOH extract).

Gardenin (root); hederagenin and beta-sitosterol (wood and bark).

In fever (fruit pulp) and increasing the secretion of gastric juices (root). Its root-infusion is given in dyspepsia in indigestion. A preparation made from its root is used in indigenous medicine for children.

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