Naregamla is probably from a regional Indian language name, naringa.
This plant does not seem to have any name in either Sanskrit or Hindi. In English it is called Goanese or Country Ipecacuanha. In Marathi, this is tinpani, pittvel or kapur bhendi, in Goanese, trifolio (the three leaved); in Kannada and Tamil, nela naringa; in Malayalam, nelanarakanx in Konkani, bhuinaringa.
This is a small sized woody shrub growing in Western and Southern India. The chief importance of the plant is that its roots and stems (where the leaves are removed) have emetic (vomit inducing) and expectorant (i.e. causing cough and thereby expelling the phlegm within)action. This is much like the famous ipecacuanha drug – a native of Brazil from where it is imported, for its powerful emetic and expectorant action and hence can very well act as its Indian substitute.
The root of the plant has a pungent and aromatic odour and is emetic and expectorant. It is also used as a remedy in dysentery. Decoction of both the stems and the leaves have infact been employed with success in dysentery and has been found to be as effective as the Brazilian drug. The root contains an alkaloid called naregamin which is a brittle amorphous residue.
It forms crystalline salts with mineral acids. Chemically this is how it differs from einetin, the classical expectorant drug and one of the two important alkaloids of the ipecacuanha. Besides, it also does not give any colour with chlorinated lime and acetic acid. Actually therefore emetin and naregamin are not related to each other at all.
The root bark also contains wax, gum, starch, asparagine (an alkaloid found in the famous shatavari plant or Asparagus) but no tannin. This has been tried in small doses as an expectorant and found to be beneficial in chronic forms of bronchitis (inflammation of the bronchii-the twobranches leading to the lungs) where a thick but scanty though tenacious phlegm or mucus exists and this has to be expelled. It has also proved useful in bronchial catarrh with asthmatic tendencies accompanied with heart troubles.
The dose of fluid extract is from 5 to 20 minims (one minim = one sixtieth of a fluid drachm,one drachm being one tenth of an ounce) when used as an alterative (viz that which brings about desirable alterations in vital functions) and expectorant. The dosage is fifteen to forty minims when the drug is used as an emetic.
Freshly extracted juice of the tender shoots and leaves mixed with coconut oil has been used in treating psoriasis-a skin disease in which red scaly papules or pimples and patches appear.