Herbal Garden (Muligai Vanam) Nerinjil

Tribulus terrestris L. is a dicotyledonous herbal plant of the Zygophyllaceae family. It is found all over India up to 11,000 ft in Kashmir, Ceylon, and all warm regions of both hemispheres. T. terrestris is a common weed plant with divaricate spines found in sandy soil and waste lands. It is a trailing perennial, hairy, and branched herb. Leaves are stipulate, opposite usually unequal and abruptly pinnate. Leaflets are 5-8 in pairs with length 0.5 – 1.3 cm. Flowers are yellow, solitary, axillary, 8-12 mm in diameter and appear during July-August. Fruits are globose and spinosus produced during autumn. It consists of 5-12 woody cocci, each with two pairs of hard sharp spines, one pair longer than the other. Each coccus contains several seeds with transverse partition between them.