Characteristics:
Habit: Wild eggplant or Kateli is a perennial, thick, bright green and branched shrub.
Root: Roots are 10-45cm long, cylindrical but tapering and bitter to taste.
Stem: The stems have prominent nodes and inter-nodes, with thorns and hair.
Leaves: The leaves are long with thorn like structures on the mid rib.
Flower: The flowers are bisexual, hairy, regular, complete, purple and blue mixed and white in colour. It is about .5-1 cm long
Fruit: The berries are globular containing numerous seeds inside. It is smooth on the outside and bitter to taste.
Seed: The seeds are embedded in the fruit.
Pollinators: NA
Seed Dispersal: NA
Where they grow: It grows throughout India in dry places. It grows mostly in tropical and sub-tropical countries. The plant is native to Asia and is common in wasteland and roadside in India. It grows mostly as a weed. In India, in the dry parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana.
Uses:
Medicinal: The important constituents present in the plant are Glycoalkoloids and sterols. The fruit is rich in solasonine, solamargine, and solasodine. It also contains solanine, Betasterol, Lanosterol, Carpesterol, and Carotene. The entire plant has medicinal values in various ways.
The root is one of the most important constituents of Dashamoola used in Ayurveda. The medicinal properties of the plant are described below:
It helps maintain body temperature.
It reduces body and joint pains when taken with pepper.
It makes breathing comfortable by helping in the secretion of mucous from the chest.
It increases the metabolism releasing trapped gasses.
It rids the intestines of worms.
Agroforestry: It helps prevent soil erosion.
