Vetiveria zizanoides
Vetiveria zizanoides
Author : (L.) Nash
Family : Poaceae

Habit: Herb
Sanskrit: Ushirah, Sevyah, Sugandhimulah
English: Vetiver, Khas-khas, Khus-khus
 
Description
A densely tufted herb, with stout, spongy, aromatic roots, narrow, erect, keeled, glabrous leaves, grey-green or purplish spikelets, in pairs, one sessile and other pedicelled, 2-flowered on numerous slender racemes on a central axis, lower floret reduced to a lemma, upper bisexual in the sessile, male in the pedicelled spikelet, glumes armed with short, tubercule-based spines, lemmas awnless, palea minute.
Useful part

Root
Medicinal Uses

burning sensation, ulcers, skin diseases, vomiting, thirst, anaemia, bleedings, cough, asthma, hiccough, fever, sprains, headache, spermatorrhoea, hysteria, insomnia, diarrhoea, cardiac debility, amenorrhoea, dysmenorrhoea, worm infestations, general debility
Major chemical constituents

vetiselinenol, khusimol, khusilal, elemol, vetiverol, cyclocopacamphenol, α- & β-vetivone