Sacrificial grass

The scientific name of Sacrificial grass: Desmostachya bipinnata (Linn.)Stapf.

Synonyms: Eragrostis cynosuroides (Retz.) P. Beauv.

Name of Sacrificial grass in different languages:-

English: Sacrificial grass, Halfa grass, Big cordgrass, Salt reed-grass

Hindi: Davoli

Sanskrit: Darbhah, Kusha, Yanjabhooshana

Malayalam: Balidarbha, Darbhappullu

Tamil: Darbhaibhul

Plant description:

It is a perennial rhizomes grass  found throughout India in hot and dry places. It is tall, stems grow to 30-90 cm high, branched from the base; root stock stout, creeping; stolons very stout, covered with shining sheathes;, tufted, smooth, erect, stout. Leaves many, the basal fascicled, reaching sometimes 50 cm long and 1 cm broad at the base, rigid, acuminate, with filiform tips and hispid margins; sheath glabrous; ligule a hairy line. Panicles erect, narrowly pyramidal clothed from the base with sessile imbricating spikelets; grain 0.5-0.6 mm long, obliquely ovoid, laterally compressed, obscurely trigonous.

Leaf Arrangement

Useful plant parts:

Whole plant

Medicinal uses:

To treat asthma, jaundice, disease of the blood, biliousness, strangury, disease of the bladder, skin eruption, dysentery, menorrhagia, uropathy, excess thirst and vesical calculi

Chemical content:

Camphene, isobornyl acetate, tricyclene, Caryophyllene diepoxide , β-eudesmol,Eseroline  and Calarene.

Medicinal properties:

Aphrodisiac, diuretic, anti-dermatic, galactagogue