Strobilanthes kunthiana T Anderson ex Benth. 🌼 Family - Acanthceae 🌼 Common name - Neelakurinji, kurunji 🌼 Location - Munnar, Kerala

🌺 Strobilanthes kunthiana T Anderson ex Benth.

🌼 Family - Acanthceae

🌼 Common name - Neelakurinji, kurunji

🌼 Location - Munnar, Kerala

🌺 It is a bright blue bell shaped flower.

🌺The uniqueness of the flower is that it blooms once in 12 years.

🌺 Neelakurinji Flower That Turns The Munnar Mountains in Blue Color.

🌺 Strobilanthes kunthiana is the most rigorously demostrated with documented bloomings in 1838, 1850, 1862, 1874, 1886, 1898, 1910, 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1980, 1994, 2006 & 2018, these have no match to solar cycles.

🌺The Paliyan tribal people living in Tamil Nadu used it as a reference to calculate their age.

🌺 Medicinal uses -

1. Anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-osteoarthritic, analgestic properties, anticancer activity, antioxidant, antibiofilm activity , antifungal activity.

2. It is an important shrub used in the treatment of rheumatism.

3. The roots are useful in fever, leucoderma, skin diseases, inflammations, cough, bronchitis etc.

4. The leaves and bark are useful in whooping cough, fever, bronchitis, leprosy, inflammations, fever etc.

Sugimani Marndi

Biodiversity and Conservation Lab. 

Ambika Prasad Research Foundation

Cuttack, Odisha 

www.aprf.co.in