Hemidesmus indicus R.Br., Asclepiadaceae, the Indian Sarsaparilla, is a climbing plant occurring in the Upper Gangetic plain, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh to South India, in the wild, and is also cultivated. Hemidesmus indicus1 shows the plant with paired leaves, along with the thick-stemmed tendril climber Cissus quadrangularis (Vitaceae).

The dried roots constitute the drug Hemidesmus or ananthamul which has long been used as a demulcent, diaphoretic, diuretic, and alterative, prescribed in rheumatism, gavel and other urinary diseases and skin disorders. It is also used in fevers, loss of appetite, as a blood purifier, in leucorrhoea and syphilis.

The root is a substitute for sarsaparilla (the dried root of the tropical species of Smilax, Smilacaceae; in India Smilax aspera L., and Smilax ovalifolia Roxb.). Sarsaparilla and the Indian sarsaparilla are used for similar purposes and mutually substituted. This is surprising as the two belong to botanically widely distant taxa.

The air-dried root contains the essential oil 2-hydroxy-4-methoxy benzaldehyde, b-sitosterol. a- and b-amyrins, lupeol, resinic acid, fatty acids, tannins and saponins.