ANSA (Sanskrit —
Adusa, Vasaka; botanical name — Adhatoda Vasica) is about two to four feet tall, much-branched dense shrub that grows wildly throughout the plains and the foothill regions of India. It has white flowers and opposite ascending branches with long and dark green leaves. Bansa is found in abundance in the Shivaliks where it is commonly known as
basuti. Another specie of bansa grows along the ghats of south India and has black flowers. Its dried leaves and root are used in making the drug.Bansa leaves are slightly bitter, pungent, light, dry and cold in effect. Its chemical composition is of an alkaloid called vascine. Bansa also contains a smelly volatile oil, resin and adhatodic acid. The medicinal properties of bansa are mainly due to vascine.
Ayurvedic texts describe Bansa as cure for diseases of vitiated kapha and pitta. It is an expectorant that is also used extensively in the treatment of cough and other respiratory ailments. Experiments show that certain substances present in this herb dilate finer bronchioles and ensure smooth expectoration of the phlegm. Bansa is also known to constrict small blood vessels, acting as an excellent blood coagulant. In old texts, there are various references of streaking of sputum with blood and epistaxis where the use of bansa is beneficial.
In chronic bronchits of allergic origin, a jushanda of bansa, banfsha, mulethi, unnab and nilofer helps in removing bronchial spasm, resulting in softening and expelling of thick sputum. The liquid extract of bansa is also used in many pharmaceutical formulations as an expectorant. Fresh juice of bansa leaves and giloy is used for curing burning micturation and also some gynaecological diseases.
Classic ayurvedic preparation, vasavleha, which is a semisolid chutney, is recommended to patients of chronic respiratory problems. Vasarishta and vasakasva are other popular medicines containing bansa as chief ingredient.
A dose of fresh leaves of bansa juice is normally 10 ml to 20 ml once or twice a day. However, an overdose of it can cause nausea or occasional vomiting.
