The plant is essentially Persian and therefore well known to yunani practitioners who had been using this plant from ancient times and have brought that knowledge to India on coming here. They make use of the root bark, fruit, flower and leaf. They consider leaf and seed as bitter and the removers of kapha They use it in the splenic enlargement and diseases of the heart. It induces vomiting and contracts the blood vessels, because of which reason it is effective in preventing bleeding at the nose.
Dry blotches on the skin and granular eruptions on the skin surface can both be rectified by its use. Flowers and leaves are diuretic viz they promote urine flow. Headache due to the vitiations of Vata responds favourably to this medicine. A very common use is in killing the intestinal worms; it is the leaf Juice that is used for this purpose.
An Important caution is that since the plant is poisonous, using any part of it in high dosage is not aviceable. Bark and flowers are less poisonous when compared to the fruits. Fresh leaves are probably not poisonous while seeds are the most poisonous.
Even six to eight seeds often prove fatal. Symptoms of the poisoning by these seeds are: intoxicatedness, inertness, frightenedness, restlessness, swooning, gurgling sounds of the throat, vomiting, purging and finally death. This effects liver and stomach. The conteracting measure for this poisoning is to chew snuf.