Throughout India, in the plains on waste lands and coastal areas like Bombay, Gujarat, Bengal and South India. It is propagated by seeds as medicinal hedge.

A large straggling, armed shrub, branches armed with hooks and straight hard yellow prickles; leaves bipinnate, large stipules foliaceous, pinnae 7 pairs, leaflets 3 – 8 pairs with 1 – 2 small recurved prickles between them on the underside; flowers yellow; in dense long pedunled supra – axillary racemes at the top; fruits inflated pods, covered with wiry prickles, seeds 1-2 per pod, oblong or globular, hard, grey with a smooth shiny surface. Flowering – Fruiting August to December.

CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS :

The defated kernels contain ……………………………………… caesalpins, Casesalpin F and a homoisoflavone and a glycoside bonducin, fixed oil 20%, minerals 4%, protein 20%, and starch 36%.

Roots – is emmenagogue, febrifuge, expectorant, anthelmntic and stomachic.

Leaves – are anthelmintic, emmenagogue and febrifuge.

Seeds - are bitter, astringent, acrid, thermogenic, anodye, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, difestive, stomachic, liver tonic, depurative, expectorant, contraceptive, antipyretic, aphrodisiac and tonic.