Action: Fruit—mild laxative, combats diarrhoea and dysentery, promotes healing of intestinal lesions in ulcerative colitis. Unripe fruit considered useful in diabetes. Fruit powder—used as a food supplement in sprue and other intestinal disorders. Root— anthelmintic.
The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia ofIn- dia recommends the fresh rhizome in dysuria, polyuria (in females) and menstrual disorders; the flower in asthma, bleeding disorders, vaginal discharges and leucorrhoea.The pulp of ripe fruit (50 g/rat per day) given daily with standard food pellets prevented increase in blood pressure in deoxycorticosterone-in- duced hypertension in rats. This was found partially related to increased serotonin levels triggered by the high carbohydrate and tryptophan content of the fruit.Dietary fibre prepared from unripe banana exerted an antiatherogenic effect, keeping the levels of cholesterol in serum and aorta low, as also the level of LDL cholesterol in rats fed on cholesterol diet.An anti-ulcerogenic acylsterylgly- coside, sitoindoside IV, has been isolated from unripe banana.A pectin containing hexoses (32.4%) and uronic acid (52.5%) has been isolated from the pith of the stem. The pectin was found to exhibit significant hypolipidaemic and hypoglycaemic activity in rats.The flower extract exhibited hypo- glycaemic activity in rabbits.The pseudostem is reported to possess lithotriptic and antilithic properties. The extract reduced the precursor of oxalate formation, the liver glycolic acid content in hyperoxaluric rats.The benzene extract of the root exhibited significant antibacterial and an- tifungal activity.Dosage: Dried flower—10-20 g. (API, Vol. IV.)... musa paradisiaca
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