Rauwolfia is native to India. The trade name `rauwolfia` pertains to a 16th century German botanist and physician, Leonard Rauwolfia. This plant is assumed to have been in use in Indian system of medicine from more than 4,000 years. It has been cited in Charaka`s work. Rauwolfia`s roots have been valued in India and the Malayan peninsula since prehistoric times as a solution for the bites of venomous reptiles and insects. It is also used as a febrifuge or fever-relieving drug.

Methods of usage
Rauwolfia has widespread uses in various lines of chronic ailments, like lunacy, sleeplessness, hysteria, urticaria or rising blood pressure.

Healing Power and Medicinal Properties of rauwolfia
The herb is an efficacious drug in lowering blood pressure. It is also used to lessen feverish temperature. During childbirth, it is believed to energise uterine contractions and boosts the ejection of the foetus. This however, is not substantiated and can be regarded as a folklore.

Insanity cured by rauwolfia
The plant is efficient in handling lunacy. It is universally known as `pagal-ka-dawa`, a remedy for insanity. It is sold in some parts of India, particularly Bihar and U.P., under this name and is commonly used by practicians of the aboriginal system of medicine. One gram of the pulverised root can be had twice daily with 250 ml of goat`s milk, dulcified with sugar candy. Everyone suffering from lunacy will not however be profited by rauwolfia, excluding those highly cranky patients with sturdy physique. Thin, weak and morose patients should have their blood pressure tested before the treatment and if found unusually high, rauwolfia can be experimented. As a result, it is inappropriate for those with low blood pressure.

Insomnia cured by rauwolfia
The herb is efficacious in treating insomnia due of its tranquillising properties. As a result, the drug is apparently maltreated by the poorer classes in Bihar, who administer it on infants to hasten sleep. The very first dosage of rauwolfia enables the patient of a phlegmatic and gouty nature to fall asleep. Approximately 0.60 to 1.25 grams of the powder of its root is blended with some perfume and taken. It is non-stimulating and should be given in dosages of 0.25 grams to the patient at bedtime for profound sleep. An acute patient should have 0.25 grams, both in the morning and at night before going to bed.

High Blood Pressure healed by rauwolfia
Rauwolfia is the best antidote for high blood pressure, and it has been conformed by medical fraternity in most countries, particularly American countries. Those alkaloids, which have a direct effect on hypertension, have been sequestered in it and are extensively used by the practicians of modern medicine. But they have specific unlikeable side effects, which the drug taken in its form, does not have. Practicians of Ayurvedic medicines prefer to use its root in a powderised form. Half a spoon of which taken thrice daily is valuable in assuaging hypertension.

Hysteria healed by rauwolfia
Rauwolfia is also very efficient in curing hysteria. One gram of pulverised root can be administered thrice with milk. Treatment should be sustained till total cure is obtained.

Urticaria cured by rauwolfia
Rauwolfia alleviates itchiness in urticaria. One gram of pulverised root can be consumed with water.

Composition
Rauwolfia is an upright herb with a shiny stem. The drug consists of the dried roots with their unbroken bark, preferably accumulated in autumn from three or four-year-old plants.

This herb was ushered in to the modern system of medicine by Dr. Ganpath Sen and Dr. Kartik Chandra Bose, legendary Ayurvedic physicians of Calcutta. Based on their studies they discovered that the roots contain several alkaloids, the more important being two chemical classes known as the ajmaline and the serpentine group. The amount of the total alkaloids has been estimated to be pretty high in the dried roots. The roots also contain a lot of resin and starch and when burned, leave a residue consisting of primarily potassium carbonate, phosphate, silicate and traces of iron and manganese.