Horse gram is a species of flowering plant in the legume family. It is a climbing herb with trifoliate leaves and papilionaceous flowers that produce linear pods containing 5-10 seeds. The plant has several varieties that are distinguished by differences in their fruit pods. Horse gram is drought-resistant and tolerant of poor soils, requiring warm temperatures between 20-30°C. It has a number of traditional medicinal uses for treating cough, flatulence, fever, and more, but can also cause harm if consumed by certain groups like pregnant women.

1. Horse gram
( Macrotyloma
uniflorum)

2. Macrotyloma uniflorum
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum Tracheophyta
Class Magnolyopsida
Order Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Macrotyloma
Species M. uniflorum
Chromosome no. 20, 22, 24

3. Botany:
 It is also grown as a forage and green
manure
 Plant habitat is climbing herb with stems
up to 60 cm tall
 It has a perennial fibrous rhizome
 Stem are annual, sparsely to densely
covered with spreading or appressed
whitish hairs

5. Leaves
 alternate, tri-foliolate, stipules lanceolate, 4–
10 mm long, striated
 petiole 1–7 cm long, rachis 2.5–10 mm long,
leaflets ovate-rhombic, obovate or
elliptical, apex rounded to acute, base
rounded, lateral leaflets asymmetric,
 hairy to glabrescent
on both surfaces.

6. Inflorescence
 Inflorescence an axillary
 bracts up to 3 mm long.
 Flowers bisexual, papilionaceous; calyx
pubescent, lobes triangular-lanceolate,
upper pair entirely fused
 corolla with cream, yellow or greenish
yellow standard, often with a small purple
blotch inside, obovate-oblong,
 wings and keel greenish yellow,
 stamens 10, 9 fused and 1 free;
 ovary superior, stiped, 1-celled.

7. Horse gram flowers

8. Fruits
 Fruit a linear-oblong pod 3–8 cm × 4–8
mm, upcurved towards apex, acuminate,
densely hairy when young
 later more sparsely, margins glabrous,
smooth or warty
 Fruits are dehiscent, 5–10-seeded.
 Seeds are trapezoidal, oblong or
rounded-reniform,
 They are pale to dark reddish brown,
speckled or mottled with black and
orange-brown or all black.

9. Horse gram pods

10. Varieties
4 varieties have been distinguished:
M. uniflorum – var. uniflorum
M. uniflorum – var. stenocarpum
M. uniflorum – var. verrucosum
M. uniflorum – var. benadirianum

11. Ecology
 Requires temperature of 20–30°C and
does not tolerate frost.
 Drought-resistant, grows even in low
rainfall areas.
 Grows on a wide range of soils with pH 5–
7.5, including poor soils.
 It does not tolerate waterlogging.

12. Properties
 Horse gram is sharp, bitter and hot.
 Beneficial in cough breathing problem
due to phlegms, flatulation, hicups, stones
and fever.
 Also eliminates germs and worms.
 It causes impurities of bile and blood.
 Also causes inflammation and checks
sweating.

13. Uses
 Used as a food ingredient
 Drinking semi liquid solution of horse gram
powder cures flatulation.
 Horse beans mixed with powdered dry
ginger, asafoetida and "veed salt" is taken
it cures the pain of the stomach.
 Cures disease of the stomach.
 If the water in which horse gram had
been soaked for the whole night is taken
daily, taken twice then it cures gall
stones.

14.  The use of horse gram in the diet relieves
the pain of dry piles.
 Drinking the semi liquid mixture of
powdered horse gram and powdered
black pepper cures sore throat.
 Its use in the diet is good for women as
their menstruation is purified.
 It is harmful for pregnant woman, or a
person suffering from plethora or
tuberculosis. It also causes the formation
of excessive bile.