Cissus quadrangularis

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Cissus quadrangularis

Cissus quadrangularis L., (= Vitis quadrangularis (L.) Wall., ex Wight & Arn.),  Vitaceae, is a common climbing shrub in the Indian country side.   It is easily identified from its fleshy quadrangular stems, coiled tendrils (Cissus quadrangularis1) and the few, distantly placed, thick leaves.   The other twining plant with paired leaves in the photograph is Hemidesmus indicus (Periplocaceae), another medicinal plant.

The fleshy stems and leaves are edible, raw or cooked.

Fresh leaves and stems are pulped and applied to burns, wounds and sores of men and animals.   The stem is used in gastrointestinal disorders, malaria, scurvy and dysmenorrhoea.   Stems are a galactagogue, particularly in cattle.

The most important use for this species is that the pulped stems given internally and also bandaged over to set broken/dislocated bones by traditional bone setters.   It is believed that the stems and leaves contain anabolic steroids (3-ketosteroid), which hasten the setting of the broken bones.   Action similar to that of acetylcholine, and analogous to that of muscarine and nicotine, as well as cardiotonic effects, are attributed to the species.