Abrus precatorius

Scientific Name : Abrus precatorius Common Name : Rosary pea, precatory pea, jequirity, Crab's eye Family : Fabaceae Order : Fabales Origin : India, Indonesia Hindi : Ratti Tamil : kundumani Sanskrit : Gunja Type : Perennial

Kingdom - Plantae

Genus - Abrus

Species - precatorius

Category - Climbing, twining woody vine

Flowers - Small, pea shaped, lavender color, clustered spikes of blooms,

Foliage & Plant - Dark green, alternative, compound, pinnate leaves, 12 pairs of oval leaflets

Seeds & Hazards- Small, shiny, red with black color, or sometimes white variations. Used for jewellery making. The seeds are highly poisonous. One seeds is enough to kill a person. The symptoms of poisoning are nausea, diarrhea, cyanosis, disorientation, drowsiness, stupor and circulatory failure. The substance isolated and identified is abrin which is a glycoprotein and resembles ricin of Ricinus. It caused the clumping of red corpuscles [haemagglutination]. As abrin and ricin are toxic to malignant tissues attempts are being made to use them to treat cancer

Found In - Hedges of the forest

Uses - Ornamental, Medicinal

Abrus precatorius foliage & flower spikes

African marigold-Newborn flower bud

Abrus precatorius flower buds

Abrus precatorius seed pod

Abrus precatorius seeds

Abrus precatorius pods

Abrus precatorius bright red seeds

Photographs: Guna Selvi Camera: Nikon D40x Location : Kundadam, Dharapuram, Tirupur, Erode, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India