Medicinal Aspects of Saccharum munja

Saccharum munja was traditionally used in making ropes and baskets. It is one of the best nutritious and drought tolerant species of grasses. A valuable fiber can be extracted from upper leaf sheets of flowering culms. The stem is sweet, acrid, cooling, aphrodisiac and is useful in burning sensations, thirst, erysipelas, blood troubles, urinary complaints, eye diseases and tridosha. The plant stem, flowers and adjacent soil found to have nutrients such as sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, chlorides, bicarbonates, sulphates and phosphates which are responsible for its medicinal importance. The plant parts are used in number of Ayurvedic formulations which are used in the treatment of dysuria.