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The calamus (Acorus calamus) is a shrub in the family Acoraceae.
Acorus calamus appears widely distributed in the lukewarm zone of the northern hemisphere, being native to Southeast Asia.
This plant lives in wet lowland areas near lakes, ponds and rivers.
These areas are characterized by its calm and shallow.
It is a herbaceous perennial plant with a fibrous root stalks with dark green.
Leaves are glabrous and basal located in the rhizome. They are lanceolate with wavy margins.
Inflorescences are terminal spadix covered by a colored pods that grow on a tapered cylindrical axis.
Flowers are hermaphrodite with very small chalice and presents so their undifferentiated sepals and petals.
The corolla is yellow-green, growing in abundance and laterally, forming an angle of 45 degrees.
The androecium consists of six stamens of free concrescence.
The gynoecium is bi or tricarpelar.
Fruits are berries inside are 2-3 since.
The rhizome of this plant is used for its medicinal virtues.
This plant contains essential oils, bitter glycosides, alkaloids and aromatic aldehydes.
It has many pharmacological properties: eupeptic, carminative, digestive, espamolític, hypotensive,
bradicaditzant, sedative, anticonvulsant, diuretic, diaforetic, mucolytic, hidrocoleretic, rubefacient and orexigenic.
The essential oil of calamus, consumed in high doses, can cause miscarriages may be neurotoxic and hallucinogenic.
It has also been used for its fragrance and as a psychotropic drug.