Indian Horse Chestnut: A Magical Herbal Remedy for Multiple Health Disorders

Indian Horse Chestnut (Aesculus indica) belongs to the family Hipocastanaceae and grows generally at higher altitudes of 1000-3050 meters above the sea level. This tree possess abundant medicinal values as its seeds, leaves, flowers, and bark of these plants can be used for centuries as traditional medicinal therapy to cure vascular problems and venous insufficiency.

These trees grow in the Himalayan region of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Hilly areas in Kangra, Shimla and Mandi districts are blessed with prevalence of them. They are also grown across North-eastern Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal. Tall, deciduous and spreading Indian Horse Chestnut has multiple benefits; it is used as food, feed, home decorative, and medicines. Its bark is used to cure intermittent fever and ulcer. The fruit is used to relieve rheumatism, neuralgia, rectal complaints, skin disease, and hemorrhoids and headache. As it is also used to cure colic disorder in horses, it attained its name Horse Chestnut.

In the absence of medical facilities, tribal population of this area relies heavily on plants like Aesculus indica to cure various ailments. The plant extracts contain active chemical ingredients called as Aescin , which is a mixture of triterpenoid saponin. This is blessed with pleanty of  anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant with βanti-oedema properties. Aescin exists in water-insoluble and soluble in organic. Hence it is widely used in the preparation of therapeutic agents required for the oral administration. Aesculus seeds and nuts are highly toxic and they are used as skin care medicine.  

Despite these many values, Indian Horse Chestnut remains misused and underutilized due to low awareness about it medicinal value. In their study Sangita Sood, Manju Mishra, Anil Sood and Vikram Thakur have discussed how the flour made of the plant is used to test the glucose levels among rats reduced blood glucose level from 228 to 95 mg/dl. The study observes the need to enhance the awareness levels among the local population in general and scientific community in particular about its medicinal importance.