Horsegram

brief about horsegram

1. Horse gram
( Macrotyloma
uniflorum)

2. Macrotyloma uniflorum
Kingdom:
Plantae
Phylum
Tracheophyta
Class
Magnolyopsida
Order
Fabales
Family:
Fabaceae
Genus:
Macrotyloma
Species
M. uniflorum
Chromosome no.
20, 22, 24

3. Botany:
It is also grown as a forage and green
manure
Plant habitat is climbing herb with stems
up to 60 cm tall
It has a perennial fibrous rhizome
Stem are annual, sparsely to densely
covered with spreading or appressed
whitish hairs

5. Leaves
alternate, tri-foliolate, stipules lanceolate, 4–
10 mm long, striated
petiole 1–7 cm long, rachis 2.5–10 mm long,
leaflets ovate-rhombic, obovate or
elliptical, apex rounded to acute, base
rounded, lateral leaflets asymmetric,
hairy to glabrescent
on both surfaces.

6. Inflorescence
Inflorescence an axillary
bracts up to 3 mm long.
Flowers bisexual, papilionaceous; calyx
pubescent, lobes triangular-lanceolate,
upper pair entirely fused
corolla with cream, yellow or greenish
yellow standard, often with a small purple
blotch inside, obovate-oblong,
wings and keel greenish yellow,
stamens 10, 9 fused and 1 free;
ovary superior, stiped, 1-celled.

7. Horse gram flowers

8. Fruits
Fruit a linear-oblong pod 3–8 cm × 4–8
mm, upcurved towards apex, acuminate,
densely hairy when young
later more sparsely, margins glabrous,
smooth or warty
Fruits are dehiscent, 5–10-seeded.
Seeds are trapezoidal, oblong or
rounded-reniform,
They are pale to dark reddish brown,
speckled or mottled with black and
orange-brown or all black.

9. Horse gram pods

10. Varieties
4 varieties have been distinguished:
M. uniflorum – var. uniflorum
M. uniflorum – var. stenocarpum
M. uniflorum – var. verrucosum
M. uniflorum – var. benadirianum

11. Ecology
Requires temperature of 20–30°C and
does not tolerate frost.
Drought-resistant, grows even in low
rainfall areas.
Grows on a wide range of soils with pH 5–
7.5, including poor soils.
It does not tolerate waterlogging.

12. Properties
Horse gram is sharp, bitter and hot.
Beneficial in cough breathing problem
due to phlegms, flatulation, hicups, stones
and fever.
Also eliminates germs and worms.
It causes impurities of bile and blood.
Also causes inflammation and checks
sweating.

13. Uses
Used as a food ingredient
Drinking semi liquid solution of horse gram
powder cures flatulation. 
Horse beans mixed with powdered dry
ginger, asafoetida and "veed salt" is taken
it cures the pain of the stomach. 
Cures disease of the stomach. 
If the water in which horse gram had
been soaked for the whole night is taken
daily, taken twice then it cures gall
stones. 

14. The use of horse gram in the diet relieves
the pain of dry piles. 
Drinking the semi liquid mixture of
powdered horse gram and powdered
black pepper cures sore throat. 
Its use in the diet is good for women as
their menstruation is purified.
It is harmful for pregnant woman, or a
person suffering from plethora or
tuberculosis. It also causes the formation
of excessive bile.