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CLASSIFICATION

ORDER	: Gentianales
FAMILY	: Apocynaceae
GENUS	: Tabernaemontana L.
SPECIES	: divaricate (L.) R. Br. ex Roem. & Schult.
BOTANICAL NAME	: Tabernaemontana divaricata (L.) R. Br. ex Roem. & Schult.
SYNONYMS	: Tabernaemontana coronaria (Jacq.) Willd.
COMMON NAME	: Crape jasmine, Moonbeam, Carnation of India
TAMIL NAME	: Nandiar vattai
HINDI NAME	: Chandni

PLANT DESCRIPTION

HABIT :  A small shrub with milky juice.

LEAVES :  Opposite, lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, acuminate, cuneate at base, darkgreen.

FLOWERS :  Snow white, fragrant at night, solitary or few-flowered cymes in axils or terminal, often double. Calyx lobes 5, imbricate, campanulate. Corolla salver-shaped, tube dilated below the top, lobes 5, ovate overlapping to the left. Stamens 5, included in the dilated portion of the tube, filaments short, anthers linear. Disk 0. Carpels 2, distinct, style long, stigma obovoid, ovules many.

FRUIT :  Follicles 2, green outside, orange-red within, seeds many.

FLOWERING AND FRUITING TIME :  July – September.

MEDICINAL USES

In Ayurvedic medicine, the juice from the flower buds is mixed with oil and applied to the skin to treat inflammation.

It is also used in dental care, for scabies, as cough medicine and for eye ailments.

The flower is used to make various pharmaceutical products and medicines, including creams and lotions.

IMAGES

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