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Indigofera
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Indigofera is a large genus of about 700 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Fabaceae. They occur throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, with a few species reaching the temperate zone in eastern Asia.
The species are mostly shrubs, though some are herbaceous, and a few can become small trees up to 5–6 m tall.
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Encyclopedia
Indigofera is a large genus of about 700 species of flowering plants belonging to the family Fabaceae. They occur throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, with a few species reaching the temperate zone in eastern Asia.
The species are mostly shrubs, though some are herbaceous, and a few can become small trees up to 5–6 m tall. Most are dry-season or winter deciduous. The leaves are pinnate with 5–31 leaflets and the terminal leaflet present. Leaf sizes vary from 3–25 cm. The flowers are small, produced on racemes 2–15 cm long.
Indigofera species are used as food plants by the larvae of some Lepidoptera species including Turnip Moth.
Selected species
Uses
Several of them and especially Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa are used to produce the dye indigo. Colonial planters in the West Indies grew indigo and transported its cultivation when they settled in the colony of South Carolina. Exports of the crop did not expand until the mid-to late 1700s, however, when Eliza Lucas Pinckney and enslaved Africans successfully cultivated new strains near Charleston. It became the second most important cash crop in the colony after rice before the American Revolution, and provided more than one-third the value of all exports.
The chemical aniline, from which many important dyes are derived, was first synthesized from I. suffruticosa (syn. I. anil, whence the name aniline).
Several species of this group are used to alleviate pain. The herbs are generally regarded as an analgesic with anti-inflammatory activity, rather than an anodyne. Indigofera articulata Gouan (Arabic Khedaish) was used for toothache, and Indigofera oblongifolia Forsskal (Arabic "Hasr") was used as an anti-inflammatory for insect stings, snakebites, and swellings.
Indigofera suffruticosa and Indigofera aspalthoides have also been used as anti-inflammatories. A patent was granted for use of Indigofera arrecta extract to relieve ulcer pain.
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