Vacha-( Acorus calamus): speech and intellect enhancer

Abstract

Acorus calamus is an important medicinal herb that is widely used in modern researches as was in ancient Vedic periods.The rhizomes are used in various Siddha, Unani and Ayurvedic medi-cines. In Ayurvedic system of medicine the powder of this drug is being used to produce thera-peutic purposes as like in Children (chanting ) to improve / rectify the speech defect and improv-ing the memory power is in vogue in most of the rural areas of India . It also shows excellent Ayurvedic properties called Gunas as like Medhya guna, Rasaysn karm, Jwarhar , Sothhar , Kri-mihar, Vatasamk, etc. Some of the Ayurvedic formulations with this drug are Vachadi taila. Ashwagandharishta Sarasvata churna, Sanjivani vati, Kumar rasayan,Vachabrahmi yog etc, Dif-ferent parts of the plant showed the presence of large number of phenyl propanoids, sesquiter-penes and monoterpense as well as xanthone glycosides, flavones , lignans, steroids and inorganic constituents. Alpha and Beta and –asarone are the primary constituent and mainly believed to be responsible for its wide therapeutic actions. It is also reported to possess insecticidal, larvicidal, anti-bacterial, anti-cancers, anti-ulcer, anti-convulsant, anti-epileptic and many more effects.