Abelmoschus moschatus
species of plant
Abelmoschus moschatus is an aromatic and species of medicinal plant in the family Malvaceae native to Asia and Australia. It has many common names, including Abelmosk, ambrette, annual hibiscus, Bamia Moschata, Galu Gasturi, muskdana, musk mallow, musk okra, ornamental okra, rose mallow, tropical jewel hibiscus, and Yorka okra.
Characteristics
The seeds have a sweet, flowery, heavy fragrance similar to that of musk (hence its specific epithet moschātus, scientific Latin for ‘musk’).
Despite its tropical origin, the plant is frost-hardy.
Uses of the plant
Musk mallow seed oil was once frequently used as a substitute in perfumes for animal musk; however, this use is now mostly replaced by various synthetic musks due to its high cost.
In her 1705 book the Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium, Maria Sibylla Merian described how the young indigenous women would string the seeds on threads and wear the seeds as decoration on their arms. She also indicated that the Indigenous people used the seeds to fatten up their chickens.
Culinary uses
It has many culinary uses. The seeds are added to coffee; unripe pods ("musk okra"), leaves and new shoots are eaten as vegetables.
Medicinal uses
Different parts of the plant (latākastūrikā, लताकस्तूरिका, in Sanskrit) have uses in Ayurveda herbal medicine, including as an antispasmodic and to treat gonorrhea.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Abelmoschus moschatus” as species of plant. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the science & nature register because the source frames it as species of plant. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 8, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2086536. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1705.
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This entry incorporates text from “Abelmoschus moschatus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.