Horse gram( Macrotyloma uniflorum)

Macrotyloma uniflorumKingdom: Plantae

Phylum Tracheophyta

Class Magnolyopsida

Order Fabales

Family: Fabaceae

Genus: Macrotyloma

Species M. uniflorum

Chromosome no. 20, 22, 24

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

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 glabrescenton both surfaces.

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.

Horse gram flowers

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.

Horse gram pods

Varieties

4 varieties have been distinguished:

M. uniflorum – var. uniflorumM. uniflorum – var. stenocarpumM. uniflorum – var. verrucosumM. uniflorum – var. benadirianum

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.

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.

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. 

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.