Kutki

Picrorhiza kurroa, known as kutki in Nepali, is a perennial herb of the Himalayas and one of the major income-earning non-timber forest products of Nepal. It is one of the oldest medicinal plants traded from the Karnali zone and is used as a substitute for Indian gentian. It grows from Ladakh and Kashmir to Sikkim, and in Nepal between 3,500 and 4,800 metres. The rhizomes are 15 to 25 centimetres long and woody, and the flowers are small, pale or purplish blue. The chemistry includes kutkin, a bitter glycoside. The rhizome has a long history in Indian Ayurvedic medicine for digestive problems, though the page says the medical evidence for other uses is not conclusive. The page states that the plant has been harvested to near extinction, and that overharvesting from the wild was the stated reason for its listing in 1997 on a trade-convention appendix.