Psoralea corylifolia
| Psoralea corylifolia | |
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| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Fabales |
| Family: | Fabaceae |
| Genus: | Psoralea |
| Species: | P. corylifolia |
| Binomial name | |
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Psoralea corylifolia L. |
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| Synonyms | |
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Kannada : Bavanchi, Tamil : Karpokarishi, Malayalam : Karboga-Ari, Telugu : Bhavanchi-Vittulu, Hindi : Bavanchiyani-Baschi / Bakuchee, Bengali : Bavachi, Konkani : Vakuchu and Marathi : Bavanchi.
Psoralea corylifolia (Babchi) is an important plant in the Indian Ayurveda and Tamil Siddha systems of medicine, and also Chinese medicine. The seeds of this plant contain a variety of coumarins including psoralen. The seeds have a variety of traditional medicinal uses, but the specific role (if any) of psoralen in these uses is unknown.
An extract of the plant's fruit Fructus psoraleæ has been shown to act as a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor in vitro.
Extracts obtained from the seeds of P. corylifolia have been shown to inhibit in vitro and may therefore increase susceptibility to oxidative stress.
P. corylifolia has been implicated in at least one case of severe hepatotoxicity in a 64-year-old woman who self-medicated with a variety of Aryuvedic herbs for her vitiligo. The authors identify psoralens as "the primary candidate causing the hepatotoxic reaction".
P. corylifolia extract contains a number of chemical compounds including flavonoids (neobavaisoflavone, isobavachalcone, bavachalcone, bavachinin, bavachin, corylin, corylifol, corylifolin and 6-prenylnaringenin), coumarins (psoralidin, psoralen, isopsoralen and angelicin) and meroterpenes (bakuchiol and 3-hydroxybakuchiol).
Very high concentrations genistein have been found in the leaves of Psoralea corylifolia.
P. corylifolia L., or Bu Gu Zhi in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is an herb used to tonify the kidneys, particularly kidney yang and essence. It is used for helping the healing of bone fractures, for lower back and knee pain, impotence, bed wetting, hair loss, and vitiligo.
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Wikipedia