This is an erect, spreading, branched, annual herb, about 50 centimeters in height, with hairs springing from tubercles. The leaves are stalkless, opposite, lanceolate, 2 to 8 centimeters long, pointed at the tip, and heart-shaped at the base. The flowers occur singly in the axils of the leaves. The sepal tube (calyx) is green, hairy, and 1 to 13 centimeters long, with pointed lobes. The flower tube is pale blue, with the limb about 1.5 centimeters in diameter, and the petals pointed. The fruit is ellipsoid, and is enclosed by the calyx. The nutlets are about 5 millimeters long, and rough on the inner surface. It is found throughout India, on roadsides and stony dry wastelands, upto 1,500 m.
Medicinal uses: The plant is acrid, bitter in taste. In herbal medicine jargon, it is thermogenic, emollient, alexeteric, anodyne, anti-inflammatory, carminative, constipating, diuretic, depurative, ophthalmic, febrifuge and pectoral. This herb is also used in arthralgia, inflammations, dyspepsia, diarrhoea, dysentery, strangury, skin diseases and dysmenorrhoea.
SHEPHERD’S PURSE
Shepherd’s Purse is originally from Europe, but has become very common in many parts of the world. The species name bursa-pastoris mean purse of the shepherd. This name refers to the fruit-capsule in the shape of a triangle, attached to slender stalk from its pointy end, with a notch on the top. Shepherd’s Purse grows in gardens, fields, waste grounds, and embankments with soils that are not too dry and that provide enough sunshine. This is rather a small plant, growing to 6-20 cm high. The basal leaves are lanceolate and dentate. The white flowers are arranged in loose racemes. Flowers are radially symmetrical with four petals. The seeds of this plant give off a viscous compound when moistened. Aquatic insects stick to it and eventually die. This can be used as a mosquito control method, killing off the mosquito larvae, and makes it a borderline carnivorous plant. The seeds, leaves, and root of this plant are edible. In China, it is commercially grown for consumption. Flowering: December-January.
Medicinal uses: In Manipur, it has been used to stop bleeding from internal organs.
