AN UPDATE ON AYURVEDIC HERB VISHNUKANTA (CLITORIA TERNATEA LINN.): A REVIEW

AN UPDATE ON AYURVEDIC HERB VISHNUKANTA (CLITORIA TERNATEA LINN.):  A REVIEW

Shashi Alok, Nitika Gupta ^*, Anurag Kumar and Anu Malik

Department of Pharmacognosy, Institute of Pharmacy, Bundelkhand University, Jhansi - 284182, Uttar Pradesh, India.

ABSTRACT: Clitoria ternatea, commonly known as Butterfly pea, is a medicinal plant belonging to the family Fabaceae. The plant is reported to be used in lithiasis, insect bites, skin diseases, asthma, burning sensation, ascites, inflammation, leucoderma, leprosy, hemicrania, amentia, and pulmonary tuberculosis. It is commonly called “Shankpushpi” in the Sanskrit language where it is reported to be a good “Medhya” (brain tonic). The major phytoconstituents found in Clitoria ternatea are the pentacyclic triterpenoids such as taraxerol and taraxerone, ternatins, alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, carbohydrates, proteins, resins, and starch. Various secondary metabolites including triterpenoids, flavonols, anthocyanins, and steroids have been isolated from Clitoria ternatea Linn.

Keywords: Pharmacognosy, Microscopy, Macroscopy, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology

INTRODUCTION: Herbal medicines are in great demand in the developed as well as developing countries for primary healthcare because of their wide biological and medicinal activities, higher safety margins, and lesser costs ¹. Medicinal plants are part and parcel of human society to combat diseases, from the dawn of civilization ¹. There exists a plethora of knowledge, information, and benefits of herbal drugs in our ancient literature of Ayurvedic (Traditional Indian Medicine), Siddha, Unani, and Chinese medicine ².

Clitoria ternatea L. (Family: Fabaceae) is a perennial twining herb; stems are terete, more or less pubescent. The roots have a sharp, bitter taste and are useful in severe bronchitis, asthma, inflammation, and fever ³. The fatty acid content of Clitoria ternatea seeds includes palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids ⁴. The seeds also contain beta-sitosterol ⁵. Clitoria ternatea possesses nootropic, anxiolytic, antidepressant, and anticonvulsant ⁶, sedative ⁷ antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, and analgesic activities.

It enhances memory ⁸ and increases acetylcholine content in rats ⁹. Thus Clitoria ternatea merits further phytochemical, pharmacological and clinical investigations for the development of an effective natural remedy from Ayurvedic Rasayana to provide therapeutically effective lead compounds or extracts.

Plant Profile:

Family: Fabaceae

Synonyms: Albiflora, Bracteata, and Mearnsii

FIG. 1: CLITORIA TERNATEA

Vernacular names: ¹⁰

Scientific Classification: ¹¹

Description: Clitoria ternatea has fine twining stems, 0.5-3 m long. The leaves are pinnate, with 5-7 elliptic to lanceolate leaflets, 3-5 cm long and shortly pubescent underneath. Flowers are solitary, deep blue to blue mauve; very short pedicellate and 4-5 cm long. Pods are flat, linear, beaked, 6-12 cm long, 0.7-1.2 mm wide and slightly pubescent with up to 10 seeds. The seeds are olive, brown or black in color, often mottled, 4.5-7 mm long and 3-4 mm wide ¹². The root system of Clitoria ternatea consists of a fairly stout taproot with few branches and many slender lateral roots. Multicellular trichomes, with two basal cells smaller than the terminal cells, are present. In Transverse section, leaf shows a dorsiventral structure.

All along the veins, prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate are present. The vein–islet number is 7.5, and palisade ratio is 6.0. The pods are (5-10 cm) long, flat, and 6-11 seeded ^{13, 14}. Cortex is composed of 10-12 layers of thin-walled almost polygonal or tangentially elongated cells, packed with mostly compound starch grains ^{15, 16}. All the ray cells are fully packed with starch grains, and few contain calcium oxalate crystals ^{17, 18, 19}.

Habitats: Clitoria ternatea is a deep-rooted, tall slender, climbing legume with five leaflets and a deep blue flower. It is well adapted to a variety of soil types (pH 5.5-8.9) including calcareous soils. It is surviving in both the extended rainfall regions and prolonged periods of drought. Propagation is done through seed. It exhibits excellent regrowth after cutting or grazing within a short period and produce high yields also ²⁰. Clitoria ternatea L. is well adapted to heavy cracking clay soils in northern Australia ²¹. It is also used as a cover crop and green manure. The seeds are normally sown from the beginning until the middle of the wet season. It persists best when grazed lightly during the wet season ²².

Distribution: It is found commonly as an escape in hedges and thickets throughout India to an altitude of 15 cm and in the Andaman Islands. It can be grown as a forage legume either alone or with perennial fodder grasses in Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya-Pradesh, Andhra-Pradesh and Karnataka ²³.

Plant Parts Used: Leaves, Seeds, Bark, Fruits, Sprouts, Stem

TABLE 1: CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS

Traditional Uses:

Medicinal Uses in Asian Indian Medicine:

Root:

• According to Chhattisgarh state, it is used as a diuretic, the crushed fresh root bark is taken with a cup of warm milk 20 days for 2 weeks.
• The root is used in the treatment of various diseases, like indigestion, constipation, fever, arthritis, and eye ailments.
• The root is also employed in cases of ascetics, enlargement of the abdominal viscera, sore throat and skin disease ²⁹.
• They are also demulcent and given in chronic bronchitis.
• Though they are purgative, they cause griping and tenderness, and hence are not recommended ³⁰.
• Root is administered with honey and ghee as a general tonic to children for improving mental faculties, muscular strength and complexion tonics and in epilepsy and insanity ³¹.
• The root-juice of the white-flowered variety is blown up the nostrils as a remedy for hemicrania.
• The decoction or powder of root is given in rheumatism and ear-diseases.

Leaves:

• In Assam, juice of leaves is mixed with salt and applied around ears in headache and swelling of adjacent gland to relieve pain.
• Juice is used as an anti-dote against snake–bite ^32.
• Leaves are used as poultices for swollen joints.
• In the traditional system of medicine particularly in Ayurveda, the roots, seeds, and leaves of clitoria ternatea have long been widely used as a brain tonic and are believed to promote memory and intelligence ³³.

Flowers:

• According to Irulas of the Kodiakkarai clitoria ternatea paste of flowers is applied to cure infections of the eye and for headache.
• Flowers are used as an antidote for snake-bites ³⁴.
• Among the two varieties, the white-flowered one is found to be therapeutically more active and hence preferred.
• The blue-flowered variety is generally used as a substitute for the white-flowered one. The roots have an acrid and bitter taste and are credited with purgative, laxative and diuretic properties.

Seeds:

• Seeds are considered for colic, dropsy, and enlargement of abdominal viscera.
• They are also used in swollen joints ³⁵.
• 50 gm crushed seeds are taken with a cup of water once a day for 3 days. According to Rajshahi district in Bangladesh seeds are boiled in water, and the water strained through a cloth. 1/32 kg of the strained water is to be taken for 7 days in urinary problems ³⁶.
• Clitoria ternatea seed powder mixed with pepper was given in constipation. This was information given by villagers from Dharapuram Taluk, Tamil-nadu ³⁷.

Other uses:

• Clitorea ternatea is a highly palatable forage legume generally preferred by livestock over other legumes.
• It exhibits excellent regrowth after cutting or grazing within a short period and produce high yields.
• It can be grown with all tall grasses for rotational grazing, hay or silage.
• Butterfly pea is also used as a cover crop and green manure.
• Due to its attractive flower colors it is also grown as an ornamental plant ³⁸. The young shoots, leaves, flowers and tender pods are eaten as a vegetable in Kerala (India) and the Philippines.
• In Malaysia, the leaves are employed to impart a green color to food and the flowers to impart a bright blue color to rice cakes.
• The climber yields a useful green fodder throughout the year, particularly during the dry period and also dry feed ³⁹.
• It is grown either alone or with other perennial grasses in Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in India. Besides suppressing many perennial weeds, it enriches the soil by fixing Nitrogen.
• It is also used as drought-resistant pasture in arid and semi-arid regions ⁴⁰.

TABLE 2: PRELIMINARY PHARMACOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF ALCOHOLIC EXTRACTS OF C.TERNATEA LINN.

TABLE 3: PHYTOCHEMICAL STRUCTURE PRESENT IN C.TERNATEA LINN.

S. no.	Chemical Name	Chemical Structure
1	Taraxerol	Taraxerol is a Pentacyclic triterpenoid found in the root of C. ternatea L 58.
2	Physostigmine	Physostigmine is a Physostigmine was used as standard and showed inhibition of AChE 59.
3	Kaempferol Quercetin	Two malonylated kaempferol and quercetin glycosides and one myricetin glycoside were isolated from the petals of Clitoria ternatea, together with eleven known flavonol glycosides. Their structures were identified by UV, MS, and NMR spectroscopic methods 60
4	Ternatins A1	Structure of ternatin A1, the largest ternatin in the major blue anthocyanins from C.Ternatea flowers 61.

TABLE 4: QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE VARIOUS PHYTO-CONSTITUENTS ON THE ETHANOL EXTRACTS OF CLITORIA TERNATEA L.  OF ROOT ⁶²

TABLE 5: PHYSICAL ANALYSIS OF C.TERNATEA L. OF ROOT

Microscopic Characters of C. ternatea L. Root:

• Shows layers of rectangular, thin-walled, tangentially elongated exfoliating cork cells.
• The secondary cortex consists of rows of large, polygonal, thin-walled cells filled with starch.
• Grains, a few cells contain prismatic crystals of calcium oxalate in this region.
• Single or groups of lignified cortical fibers, distributed in the lower half of the cortex.
• Secondary phloem consists of usual elements.
• Phloem fibers in groups, a few solitary fibres also present, very long, thin-walled with the narrow lumen and pointed tips.
• Xylem fibers similar to those of phloem fibers, a few showing slit-like pits.
• Medullary 10rays 1-5 cells wide, oblong, and pitted.
• Xylem parenchyma irregular in shape and pitted walls.
• Starch grains simple as well as a compound having components, single grains are measuring 3-13 μ in dia.
• Found in the secondary cortex, phloem and xylem parenchyma.

FIG. 2: TRANSVERSE SECTION OF C. TERNATEA L. ROOT

CONCLUSION: The widespread survey of literature exposed that C. ternatea L. is highly regarded as a universal solution in herbal medicine with diverse pharmacological activity range. This versatile medicinal plant is the unique resource of various types of chemical compounds, which are responsible for the various activities of the plant. Hence extensive investigation is needed to develop their therapeutic utility to combat diseases. As the global scenario is now altering towards the use of non-toxic plant products having traditional medicinal use, development of modern drugs from C. ternatea L. should be emphasized for the organizer of various diseases. Further evaluation needs to be carried out on C. ternatea L. to discover the concealed areas and their practical clinical applications, which can be used for the benefit of mankind.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Nil

CONFLICT OF INTEREST: Nil

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    How to cite this article:

    Alok S, Gupta N, Kumar A and Malik A: An update on Ayurvedic herb Vishnukanta (Clitoria Ternatea Linn.): a review. Int J Life Sci & Rev 2015; 1(1): 1-9. doi: 10.13040/IJPSR.0975-8232.IJLSR.1(1).1-9.

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