Asuro (Malabar nut)

• Sanskrit name : Vasa
• Nepali name : Asuro
• Hindi name : Adusa
• English name : Malabar nut 
• Medicinal uses: Externally, the paste made out of leaves if applied acts as anti-inflammatory & pain-killer therefore, very good medicine in swelling & pain like ‘Ama-vata’ ( type of arthritis) and skin disease.

Justicia adhatoda is a shrub with 10-20 lance-shaped leaves 8-9 centimeters in length by four wide. They are oppositely arranged, smooth-edged, and borne on short petioles. When dry they are of a dull brownish-green color. They are bitter-tasting. When a leaf is cleared with chloral hydrate and examined microscopically the oval stomata can be seen. They are surrounded by two crescent-shaped cells at right angles to the ostiole. The epidermis bears simple one- to three-celled warty hairs, and small glandular hairs. Cystoliths occur beneath the epidermis of the underside of the blade.

The trunk has many long opposite ascending branches, where the bark is yellowish in color. Flowers are usually white and the inflorescence shows large, dense, axillary spikes. Fruits are pubescent, and are with club-shaped capsules.