Lavatera kashmiriana: Distribution, Characteristics, Chemical constituents and Medicinal Uses
Lavatera Kashmiriana is a Kashmir Valley indigenous and endangered plant (Molur and Walker, 1998). It is a lovely, semi-evergreen, perennial tall mallow flowering Kashmiri plant that grows in humus-rich soils in meadows, shrubberies, and forest clearings (Ford, 1938; Sharma, 2003; Kaul, 1997; Vidyarthi, 2010). Roots as a laxative (Sharma, 2003), gastrointestinal problems and renal colic (Kaul, 2010), flowers for common cold and mumps, and seeds as an antiseptic. L. cachemiriana is a valuable ornamental and medicinal herb that was once only found in the Kashmir valley (Molur and Walker, 1998; Kaul, 1977), but is now distributed throughout the western Himalayas from Pakistan to Uttar Pradesh/Uttaranchal (Sharma, 2003; Kaul, 1977).