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Other Names
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Family
Food - The ground seeds are used as a flavorful condiment, while the fruit peel adds specific aroma to dishes. Medicine - Different parts of the plant, including leaves, fruits, stem, bark, and seeds, have been used in various indigenous medicinal practices for their carminative, antipyretic, appetizer, stomachic, and toothache-relieving properties, as well as for treating dyspepsia (Manandhar, 2002; Phuyal et al., 2019).
Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan
Rain forests, thickets and, at higher elevations, often on open slopes and rock ledges at altitudes of 500-2400 m asl.
Its seeds, leaves, and bark are popularly used as spices. Used in traditional medicine and as a natural pesticide.
Small tree or large spiny shrub growing up to 5 m tall.
Branchlets have prickles/spines. The young branchlets are glabrous or the young branches are sparsely pubescent.
Leaves are distinctlively trifoliolate, with the leaf-stalk winged. Leaflets are stalkless, 2-7.5 x 1-1.7 cm, elliptic to ovate-lancelike, entire to slightly toothed, sharp-tipped, base sometimes oblique. Minute yellow flowers arise in leaf axils.
Flowers have 6-8 acute sepals. Petals are absent. Male flowers have 6-8 stamens, and large anthers because of which the flowers look yellow. Female flowers have 1-3 celled ovary, 3 mm in diameter, pale red, splitting into two when ripe. Seed are rounded, 3 mm in diameter, shining black.
Fruit follicles are purplish-red, about 4-5mm in diameter, while the seeds are black and 3-4mm in size.
Flowering: April – May
Fruiting: August – October