Shatavari (Latin name, Asparagus racemosus), an under-shrub with stout and creeping root stock, grows in tropical, sub-tropical dry and deciduous forests. Roots occur in clusters or fascicle with succulent and tuberous rootlets. The stem is scandent, woody, triquetrous, striate, terete and climbing. The spines are long, sub-recurved or straight. The flowers, solitary or fascicles, are simple or branched racemes of 3 cm long.
The roots possess oleaginous, cooling, antispasmodic, alliterative, stomach, tonic, antidiarrhoeatic, antidysenteric and laxative properties. It is useful in tumors, inflammations, diseases of blood and eye, throat complaints, tuberculosis, leprosy, epilepsy, night blindness and kidney troubles.
