Common
name: Orange Jasmine,
Chinese box • Hindi: Kamini कामिनी • Manipuri: কামিনী কুসুম Kamini kusum • Tamil: வெங்காரை Vengarai • Telugu: Nagagolungu • Marathi: कुन्ती Kunti • Kannada: Kadu karibevu • Malayalam: Maramulla
Botanical
name: Murraya
paniculata
Family: Rutaceae (citrus family)
Synonyms: Murraya exotica
Introduction:
Kamini flowers have an aromatic orange-like fragrance. Native to India,
Kamini is a large, multi-trunked shrub, but can grow to become a small tree. It
can be pruned and also grown as garden hedge! The evergreen leaflets are dark
green and pinnately compound with three to nine leaflets arranged alternately
along the spine. The dark green leaves make a dramatic backdrop for the highly
fragrant cream colored flowers. The shrub blooms most of the year. The flowers
are followed by small oval red fruits with one or two seeds. The shrub is
usually propagated from seed.
Chemical
constituents
Mahanimbine,
girinimbine, murrayanine, murrayafoline- A, Bismurrayafoline- A and
chrestifoline- A. Murranimbine, Murrayamine- O and murrayamine- P, 3-formyl-2,
7- dimethoxycarbazole, 7-methoxy murrayacine, 3-formyl-2- methoxycarbazole or
methylmukonal, 9-carbethoxy-3-methylcarbazole and 9-formyl-3-methylcarbazole.
Medicinal uses
The
carbazole alkaloids- antiimplantation, hypoglycaemic, hepatoprotective,
antibacterial, antiinflammatory, antioxidant, mosquitocidal, anti-diabetic,
antilipdemic; wheras the coumarins show anti-tumor, anti-inflammatory,
antinociceptive, antimicrobial potential.
The
coumarins :- used as antidote against
snake venom.
The
leaves of Murraya koengii can be utilized in Alzheimer’s disease and in
dementia.
The
different parts of the plants of this genus help in scavenging free radicals
and to control the oxidative stress.
