guduchi

Guduchi or Giloy Plant is well known herbaceous vine and glabrous climbing shrub. It is deciduous, large and extensively spreading climbing shrub with numerous elongated twining branches and typical greenish yellow flowers. Heart shaped leaves of Giloy shrub are simple and alternate with long petioles up to 15cm long in length and dark green in color.

Giloy contains unisexual Giloy flowers, male flowers are clustered and female flowers are solitary. Succulent bark of this herb is grey or creamy white in color and wood is white, soft and porous. When stem is freshly cut it gives a yellow tint. Flowering season of this herb is in month of June while fruits occur in the month of November. Guduchi Fruits are drupe shaped that turn red after ripening. These fruits aggregates in 1-3 small, ovoid and smooth drupelets on thick stalk.

Habitat

Tinospora cordifolia is distributed throughout tropical regions of India that are located 1200meters above from sea level of kumaon to Assam. It is native to India, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Giloy is very common vine found in deciduous and dry forests. In India it is easily available in Bihar, West Bengal, Kerala and Karnataka.

Classification

Kingdom
Plantae

Family
Menispermaceae

Order
Ranunculales

Vernacular Names

English– Indian Tinospora, Heartleaved moonseed
Hindi– Giloy, Gurach
Kannada– Agniballi, Amrutaballi
Malayalam– Amritavalli, Chitamrith
Telugu– Dussiramu, Tippatige
Marathi– Ambarvel, Amrita, Gulvel
Bengali– Giloy, Gulancha
Oriya– Gulochi, Gulancha

Gujarati– Gulo, Gado, Galo
Tamil– Amridavalli, Silam,Pittigai
Sikkim– Gurjo
Punjabi– Batindu,Gilogularich
Assamese– Hoguni-lot
Konkani– Amritvel
Urdu– Guluncha
Nepalese– Gurjo

Ayurvedic Properties of Giloy

Hindi / Sanskrit		English
Rasa	Kashaya, Tikta	Taste	Astringent, Bitter
Guna	Laghu	Physical Property	Light
Virya	Ushna	Potency	Hot
Vipaka	Madhura	Metabolic Property (After Digestion)	Sweet

Effects on Doshas

Giloy balances vata, pitta and kapha dosha.

Charak Samhita	Sushrut Samhita	Bhavprakash
Vayasthapan – Rejuvenative group of herbs. Trishna nigrah – Herbs used to reduce thirst. Triptighna – Herbs relieve early satiation. Daha prashmana – Herbs that relieve burning sensation. Satnya shodhna – Herbs that helps in cleansing of breast milk.	Guduchyadi gana, Patolyadi gana Valli panchmoola Aragvadhadi gana Kakolyadi gana.	Guduchyadi gana

Practical uses of Giloy

Guduchi helps in boosting up immune system. It helps to remove extra toxins from body and rejuvenates body. According to Ayurveda this herb helps to maintain balance between all necessary ailments of body i.e. dosha, dhatu and mala. This herb helps to prevent body from diseases and maintain overall health.
Giloy is very beneficial herb to relieve all type of high grade, low grade fever and other viral, bacterial infections. It helps to relieve underlying symptoms of fever such as burning sensation, weakness, fatigue, chills and excessive sweating.
Giloy satva is very beneficial for all types of fever and other infections. This herb is also very effective for the sufferers of typhoid fever.
The herb is effective for various skin disorders like itching, burning sensation, leprosy, redness, swelling and tenderness.
Giloy is also very beneficial herb for uric acid and gout. It reduces the excess uric acid and toxin formation in body.
This herb is used to treat interstitial cystitis. It helps to reduce high cholesterol level and also very beneficial for the sufferers of diabetes.
Ethanol extract present in the roots of Tinospora are very beneficial for nervous system. This chemical compound helps to relieve stress and is considered as best brain tonic.
It is also used to cure digestive ailments like indigestion, hyperacidity, worm infestation, abdominal pain and excessive thirst.
Roots of this herb are strong emetic in nature and very useful in treating bowel obstructions.
It helps in pacifying tridosha- vata, pitta and kapha.