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Clausena anisata
Also called False Horsewood, Samandua
Horsewood is a deciduous shrub or small tree of the citrus family, native to sub-Saharan Africa, India and parts of Asia. It is grown mainly for its wide use in traditional medicine, and its strongly smelling leaves give it the name horsewood.
Clausena anisata is a deciduous shrub or small tree, belonging to the Rutaceae (citrus) family, and widespread in the Sub-Saharan Africa, but absent from drier regions. It is also found in tropical and South-East Asia, India and Sri Lanka. It is cultivated in Malaysia and Indonesia. As with other plants useful to mankind its large range of medicinal properties has led to a global distribution and its growth wherever the climate is suitable. It grows in higher-rainfall regions in savanna, thickets, riverine forest, disturbed areas and secondary forest, up to an altitude of 3000 m. The leaves, which are foetid when bruised, give rise to the common name horsewood or the more descriptive Afrikaans common name perdepis, meaning 'horse urine'.
This species is used in treating an uncommonly wide range of ailments and conditions. Decoctions of the leaves or roots are taken for gastro-intestinal disorders, fever, pneumonia, headache, hypotension, sore throat and sinusitis, venereal diseases, as an aphrodisiac and anthelmintic, as a tonic for pregnant women, and as a tonic for infants to prevent rickets and to control convulsions. Root decoctions and infusions are also taken for whooping cough, malaria, syphilis and kidney ailments, irregular menses, threatening abortion, skin diseases and epilepsy, and given to women before and after parturition to ease delivery and to expel blood from the uterus, and later to boost milk production. Roots are chewed to combat indigestion.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Clausena anisata by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
