Context: Recently,a multi-utility wild berry, Carissa carandas, whose thorny plant the British had used to build a barrier through India in the 1870s, has a unknown wilder cousin in Assam Carissa kopilii,a new study has revealed.

• Also known as Karja tenga(i.e. Carissa carandas) it has been used as a traditional herbal medicine for a number of ailments such as diarrhoea, anaemia, constipation, indigestion, skin infections and urinary disorders.

About Carissa kopilii

• It is a multi-utility wild berry, greenish and sour when raw and blackish and sweet when ripe.
• The fruits were difficult to find amid a profusion of thorns.
• The “sun-loving” plant was distributed sparsely, rooted in rocky crevices along the Kopili riverbed (in Central Assam) at altitudes ranging from 85-600 meters above sea level.
• Carissa kopilii, yielding white flowers from August-October and fruits from November-January, should have all the medicinal and utilitarian properties of Carissa Carandas.

Threat: The plant is threatened due to hydroelectric project on the river and water turned acidic because of coal mining in Meghalaya upstream.
The Carissa carandas (distant cousin of Carissa Kopilli) , was also among several thorny plants the British had grown 140 years ago for a 1,100-mile barrier apparently to enforce taxes and stop the smuggling of salt.
Uses: Carissa Carandas has been used as a traditional herbal medicine for a number of ailments such as diarrhoea, anaemia, constipation, indigestion, skin infections and urinary disorders.
The leaves have been used as fodder for silkworms while a paste of its pounded roots serves as a fly repellent.

Note: Normally Carissa Carandas flourishes well in regions with high temperatures. Thus, it is found in abundance in Western Ghats of Konkan region in the western coastal states of Maharashtra and Goa. Nevertheless, it grows naturally even in the temperate conditions of Siwalik Hills of Himalayas in India and Nepal at elevations of 30 to 1,800 metres (98 to 5,906 ft).
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