Rubia cordifolia
Encyclopedia
Rubia cordifolia, often known as Common Madder or Indian Madder, is a species of flowering plant
in the coffee
family, Rubiaceae
. It has been cultivated for a red pigment derived from roots.
Common names of this plant include Manjistha in Sanskrit
, Marathi
, Kannada and Bengali
, Majith in Hindi
and Gujarati
, Tamaralli in Telugu
, Manditti in Tamil
.
leaves
are 5–10 cm long and 2–3 cm broad, produced in whorls of 4-7 starlike around the central stem. It climbs with tiny hooks at the leaves and stems. The flowers are small (3–5 mm across), with five pale yellow petals, in dense raceme
s, and appear from June to August, followed by small (4–6 mm diameter) red to black berries
. The root
s can be over 1 m long, up to 12 mm thick. It prefers loamy soils with a constant level of moisture. Madders are used as food plants for the larvae
of some Lepidoptera
species including Hummingbird hawk moth.
It is one of the active ingredients of cystone formulation of Himalaya healthcare.
The plant's roots contain an organic compound
called Alizarin
, that gives its red colour to a textile dye
known as Rose madder
. It was also used as a colourant
, especially for paint
, that is referred to as Madder lake.
The substance was also derived other species; Rubia tinctorum
, also widely cultivated, and the Asiatic species Rubia argyi (H. Léveillé & Vaniot) H. Hara ex Lauener (synonym = Rubia akane Nakai, based on the Japanese Aka (アカ or あか) = red, and ne (ネ or ね) = root). The invention of a synthesized duplicate, an anthracene
compound called alizarin
, greatly reduced demand for the natural derivative.
The roots of Rubia cordifolia are also the source of a medicine used in Ayurveda
, this is commonly known in Ayurvedic Sanskrit
as Manjistha (or Manjista or Manjishta) and the commercial product in Hindi
as Manjith.
It is known as btsod in Traditional Tibetan Medicine
where it is used to treat blood disorders; spread heat , excess heat in the lungs, kidneys, and intestines; reduce swelling; and is a component of the three reds , a subcompound included in many Tibetan preparations in order to remove excess heat in the blood.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is known as qiàn cǎo gēn (茜草根).
Flowering plant
The flowering plants , also known as Angiospermae or Magnoliophyta, are the most diverse group of land plants. Angiosperms are seed-producing plants like the gymnosperms and can be distinguished from the gymnosperms by a series of synapomorphies...
in the coffee
Coffea
Coffea is a genus of flowering plants in the Rubiaceae family. They are shrubs or small trees native to tropical and southern Africa and tropical Asia. Seeds of several species are the source of the popular beverage coffee. Coffee ranks as one of the world's most valuable and widely traded...
family, Rubiaceae
Rubiaceae
The Rubiaceae is a family of flowering plants, variously called the coffee family, madder family, or bedstraw family. The group contains many commonly known plants, including the economically important coffee , quinine , and gambier , and the horticulturally valuable madder , west indian jasmine ,...
. It has been cultivated for a red pigment derived from roots.
Common names of this plant include Manjistha in Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...
, Kannada and Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
, Majith in Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
and Gujarati
Gujarati language
Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language, and part of the greater Indo-European language family. It is derived from a language called Old Gujarati which is the ancestor language of the modern Gujarati and Rajasthani languages...
, Tamaralli in Telugu
Telugu language
Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...
, Manditti in Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
.
Description
It can grow to 1.5 m in height. The evergreenEvergreen
In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...
leaves
Leaf
A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....
are 5–10 cm long and 2–3 cm broad, produced in whorls of 4-7 starlike around the central stem. It climbs with tiny hooks at the leaves and stems. The flowers are small (3–5 mm across), with five pale yellow petals, in dense raceme
Raceme
A raceme is a type of inflorescence that is unbranched and indeterminate and bears pedicellate flowers — flowers having short floral stalks called pedicels — along the axis. In botany, axis means a shoot, in this case one bearing the flowers. In a raceme, the oldest flowers are borne...
s, and appear from June to August, followed by small (4–6 mm diameter) red to black berries
Berry
The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....
. The root
Root
In vascular plants, the root is the organ of a plant that typically lies below the surface of the soil. This is not always the case, however, since a root can also be aerial or aerating . Furthermore, a stem normally occurring below ground is not exceptional either...
s can be over 1 m long, up to 12 mm thick. It prefers loamy soils with a constant level of moisture. Madders are used as food plants for the larvae
Caterpillar
Caterpillars are the larval form of members of the order Lepidoptera . They are mostly herbivorous in food habit, although some species are insectivorous. Caterpillars are voracious feeders and many of them are considered to be pests in agriculture...
of some Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera
Lepidoptera is a large order of insects that includes moths and butterflies . It is one of the most widespread and widely recognizable insect orders in the world, encompassing moths and the three superfamilies of butterflies, skipper butterflies, and moth-butterflies...
species including Hummingbird hawk moth.
It is one of the active ingredients of cystone formulation of Himalaya healthcare.
Uses
Rubia cordifolia was an economically important source of a red pigment in many regions of Asia, Europe and Africa. It was extensively cultivated from antiquity until the mid nineteenth century.The plant's roots contain an organic compound
Organic compound
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...
called Alizarin
Alizarin
Alizarin or 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent dye, originally derived from the roots of plants of the madder genus.Alizarin was used as a red dye for the English parliamentary "new model" army...
, that gives its red colour to a textile dye
Dye
A dye is a colored substance that has an affinity to the substrate to which it is being applied. The dye is generally applied in an aqueous solution, and requires a mordant to improve the fastness of the dye on the fiber....
known as Rose madder
Rose madder
Rose Madder is the commercial name sometimes used to designate a paint made from the pigment Madder Lake - a traditional lake pigment, extracted from the common madder plant ....
. It was also used as a colourant
Colourant
A colourant or colorant is something added to something else to cause a change in colour. Colourants can be:* Dyes* Pigments* Biological pigments* Inks* Paint* Coloured chemicals...
, especially for paint
Paint
Paint is any liquid, liquefiable, or mastic composition which after application to a substrate in a thin layer is converted to an opaque solid film. One may also consider the digital mimicry thereof...
, that is referred to as Madder lake.
The substance was also derived other species; Rubia tinctorum
Rubia tinctorum
Rubia tinctorum, the common madder or dyer's madder, is a plant species in the genus Rubia.The plant's roots contain several polyphenolic compounds like 1,3-Dihydroxyanthraquinone , 1,4-Dihydroxyanthraquinone , 1,2,4-Trihydroxyanthraquinone and 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone...
, also widely cultivated, and the Asiatic species Rubia argyi (H. Léveillé & Vaniot) H. Hara ex Lauener (synonym = Rubia akane Nakai, based on the Japanese Aka (アカ or あか) = red, and ne (ネ or ね) = root). The invention of a synthesized duplicate, an anthracene
Anthracene
Anthracene is a solid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of three fused benzene rings. It is a component of coal-tar. Anthracene is used in the production of the red dye alizarin and other dyes...
compound called alizarin
Alizarin
Alizarin or 1,2-dihydroxyanthraquinone is an organic compound with formula that has been used throughout history as a prominent dye, originally derived from the roots of plants of the madder genus.Alizarin was used as a red dye for the English parliamentary "new model" army...
, greatly reduced demand for the natural derivative.
The roots of Rubia cordifolia are also the source of a medicine used in Ayurveda
Ayurveda
Ayurveda or ayurvedic medicine is a system of traditional medicine native to India and a form of alternative medicine. In Sanskrit, words , meaning "longevity", and , meaning "knowledge" or "science". The earliest literature on Indian medical practice appeared during the Vedic period in India,...
, this is commonly known in Ayurvedic Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
as Manjistha (or Manjista or Manjishta) and the commercial product in Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...
as Manjith.
It is known as btsod in Traditional Tibetan Medicine
Traditional Tibetan medicine
Traditional Tibetan medicine is a centuries-old traditional medical system that employs a complex approach to diagnosis, incorporating techniques such as pulse analysis and urinalysis, and utilizes behavior and dietary modification, medicines composed of natural materials and physical therapies...
where it is used to treat blood disorders; spread heat , excess heat in the lungs, kidneys, and intestines; reduce swelling; and is a component of the three reds , a subcompound included in many Tibetan preparations in order to remove excess heat in the blood.
In Traditional Chinese Medicine it is known as qiàn cǎo gēn (茜草根).
Pharmacologic properties
The following properties were described in various cellular and animal models:- anti-inflammatoryAnti-inflammatoryAnti-inflammatory refers to the property of a substance or treatment that reduces inflammation. Anti-inflammatory drugs make up about half of analgesics, remedying pain by reducing inflammation as opposed to opioids, which affect the central nervous system....
- urolithiasisUrolithiasisA bladder stone is a solid concretion or crystal aggregation found in the urinary bladder...