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Setaria viridis

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Botanical Name : Setaria viridis
Family: Poaceae
Genus: Setaria
Species: S. viridis
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Poales

Common Name:Green foxtail and Green bristlegrass

Habitat :
Setaria viridis is native to Eurasia, but it is known on most continents as an introduced species and is closely related to Setaria faberi, a noxious weed. It is a hardy grass which grows in many types of urban, cultivated, and disturbed habitat, including vacant lots, sidewalks, railroads, lawns, and at the margins of fields. It is the wild antecedent of the crop foxtail millet.

Description;
This is an annual grass with decumbent or erect stems growing up to a meter long, and known to reach two meters or more at times. The leaf blades are up to 40 centimeters long and 2.5 wide and glabrous. The inflorescence is a dense, compact, spikelike panicle up to 20 centimeters long, growing erect or sometimes nodding at the tip only. Spikelets are 1.8 – 2.2 mm long. Each is subtended by up to three stiff bristles. Its fertile lemmas are finely cross-wrinkled.

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Seedling: Leaves are rolled in the bud, leaf sheaths and blades without hairs, but the leaf sheaths often have slightly hairy margins.  The ligule is a row of hairs approximately 1/2 mm long, therefore this is rarely seen by the casual observer.

Leaves: Leaf blades may reach 12 inches in length and 5-15 mm in width, and are most often without hairs or only very sparsely hairy.  The leaf sheath is closed and is without hairs, except along the margin near the mouth.  The ligule is short and fringed with hairs to 2 mm long.

Stems: Erect, without hairs, bent at the nodes, may be branched at the base, reaching 3 feet in height.

Flowers: The seedhead is a cylindrical bristly panicle, reaching 6 inches in length and 1/3-2/3 inch in width.  Spikelets are approximately 3 mm long, green, and each spikelet has 1-3 bristles that are 5-10 mm long.

Roots: Fibrous.
Cultivation: Succeeds in any well-drained soil in full sun.

Propagation:
Seed – sow early spring in a greenhouse and only just cover the seed. Germination is usually quick and good. Prick out the seedlings into individual pots as soon as they are large enough to handle and grow them on fast. Plant them out in late spring, after the last expected frosts. Whilst this is fine for small quantities, it would be an extremely labour intensive method if larger amounts were to be grown. The seed can be sown in situ in the middle of spring though it is then later in coming into flower and may not ripen its seed in a cool summer.

Edible Uses: Seed. Small. It is used in the same ways as rice or millet, either boiled, roasted or ground into a flour. The seed (roasted?) is said to be a coffee substitute.

Medicinal Uses:

The seed is diuretic, emollient, febrifuge, refrigerant and tonic. The plant is crushed and mixed with water then used as an external application in the treatment of bruises..

Disclaimer:
The information presented herein is intended for educational purposes only. Individual results may vary, and before using any supplements, it is always advisable to consult with your own health care provider.

Resources:
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_FGH.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Setaria_viridis
http://www.ppws.vt.edu/scott/weed_id/setvi.htm

http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Setaria+viridis

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News on Health & Science

Antibody ‘Fixes Internal Bleeds’

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Scientists say they have discovered an antibody that could minimise the major internal bleeding seen in traumas like bullet wounds and car crashes.
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The team at Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF) has discovered that a protein called histone is responsible for much of the damage.

They say they have found a specific type of antibody that can block the ability of histone to cause damage.

They say it could lead to new ways to treat diseases and serious injuries.

‘Life threatening’
Writing in the journal, Nature Medicine, the OMRF researchers found that when mice had a bad blood stream infection (sepsis), their blood contained high levels of histones.

They checked this in primates and humans and found the same result.

The histone protein normally sits in the nucleus of a cell, packed around the strands of DNA.

It regulates the DNA, causing it to fold and form the characteristic double helix.


Bullet wounds often lead to severe internal bleeding
When the cell is damaged by injury or disease, the histone is released into the blood system where it begins to kill the lining of blood vessels, causing damage, the OMRF researchers said.

This, they believe, results in uncontrolled internal bleeding and fluid build-up in the tissues, which are life threatening.

Dr Charles Esmon, of OMRF who led the research, said: “When we realised that histones were so toxic, we immediately went to work looking for a way to stop their destructive tendencies.”

Mouse antibody
Marc Monestier, a colleague at Temple University in Philadelphia, had already discovered a specific type of antibody known as a monoclonal antibody that could block the histones.

It had been observed that patients with auto-immune diseases make antibodies to the proteins in their cell nuclei but it was not known why.

This antibody came from a mouse with an auto-immune disease.

The OMRF team have tested the antibody in mice with sepsis and it does stop the toxic effects of the histones and they recover, the researchers say.

They now want to test it in primates and eventually humans.

Dr Esmon said histones were similar in all mammals because they were such basic building blocks.

So a mouse antibody should work equally well in a human.

He said: “We think it was an adaptation during evolution.

“Millions of years ago, when people and animals got ill, they did not die of heart attacks or car accidents they died of infectious diseases.

“Their immune systems went into overdrive throwing everything at it and we believe the histones in the cell nucleus, part of the basic building blocks of life, were the last resort.”

Dr Stephen Prescott, president of OMRF, said: “These findings offer some clues as to why people suffering from one traumatic injury often experience a catastrophic ‘cascade’ of secondary traumatic events.

“If we can figure out how to control the initial injury, perhaps that will stop the domino effect that so often follows.”

Source: BBC News: 26th.Oct.’09

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