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Herbs & Plants

Cuscuta epithymum

 

 

Botanical Name : Cuscuta epithymum
Family: Convolvulaceae
Genus: Cuscuta
Species: C. epithymum
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Solanales

Common Names: Dodder, Hellweed, Strangle-tare, Clover Dodder, Lesser Clover Dodder, Lesser Dodder, Thyme Dodder . Common names for the genus Cuscuta: are Dodder, Love Vine, Angel’s Hair, Tangle Gut, Strangle Vine, Devil’s Gut, Witches’ Shoelaces
In Spain it is called Azafrán borde o cabellos de monte

Habitat : Cuscuta epithymum is native to Europe. It can now be found throughout the world. In North America, it is found in the United States (CA, CT, IA, KY, MA, MD, ME, MI, MO, MT, ND, NE, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OH, OR, PA, RI, SD, VA,VT,WA,WV,WY) and Canada (BC, NB, ON) Cuscuta epithymum is known for infesting crops – particularly legumes, in Europe and around the world. It was spread globally, introduced by the seed trade. C. epithymum is documented from Oceana, Calhoun, Hillsdale, Washtenaw, Macomb, and St. Clair countie.

Description:
Cuscuta epithymum is a parasitic plant assigned to the Cuscutaceae or Convolvulaceae family, depending on the taxonomy. It is red-pigmented, not being photosynthetically active. It has a filiform habit, like a group of yarns. Its leaves are very small, like flakes. Its flowers, disposed in little glomerules, have a white corolla, with the androecium welded to the corolla.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

Flowering Time: Mid-July to late September….CLICK & SEE

Pollinator: Cuscuta epithymum is capable of both cross-pollination and self- pollination. Many different species of insects may contribute to pollination. One study indicated that ants were some of the main pollinators, while another observed visits to the flowers by species of bees, wasps, flies and other insects, collectively from 8 families of insects .

Fruit Type and Description: The fruit is a globose, circumscissile capsule, topped by the withered corolla. Fruits usually contain 4 seeds ....…CLICK & SEE

Seed Description: Seeds are very small, about 1mm in length. Rough, angled, and compressed-ovoid. The hilum is short, oblong, and transverse. The shape of a seed depends on how many seeds it developed with, because they develop alongside each other in the ovary. One Cuscuta epithymum plant was reported to produce 16,000 seeds .

Medicinal Uses:
A mild laxative and a well regarded hepatic. It is of value for the treatment of bladder and liver troubles. It is also considered a remedy for kidney complaints.

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

Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuscuta_epithymum
http://climbers.lsa.umich.edu/?p=223
http://www.herbnet.com/Herb%20Uses_DE.htm

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Herbs & Plants

Erythroxylon Coca

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Botanical Name: Erythroxylon Coca
Family: Erythroxylaceae
Genus: Erythroxylum
Species: E. coca
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Malpighiales
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Malpighiales

Synonyms: Cuca. Cocaine.
Habitat: Erythroxylon Coca is native to Bolivia and Peru; cultivated in Ceylon and Java.

Description:
Small shrubby tree 12 to 18 feet high in the wild state and kept down to about 6 feet when cultivated. Grown from seeds and requires moisture and an equable temperature. Starts yielding in eighteen months and often productive over fifty years. The leaves are gathered three times a year, the first crop in spring, second in June, and third in October; must always be collected in dry weather. There are two varieties in commerce, the Huanuco Coca, or Erythroxylon Coca, which comes from Bolivia and has leaves of a brownish-green colour, oval, entire and glabrous, with a rather bitter taste, and Peruvian Coca, the leaves of which are much smaller and a pale-green colour. Coca leaves deteriorate very quickly in a damp atmosphere, and for this reason the alkaloid is extracted from the leaves in South America before exportation. The Coca shrubs of India and Ceylon were originally cultivated from plants sent out there from Kew Gardens and grown from seeds…....CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

The branches are straight, and the leaves, which have a green tint, are thin, opaque, oval, and taper at the extremities. A marked characteristic of the leaf is an areolated portion bounded by two longitudinal curved lines, one line on each side of the midrib, and more conspicuous on the under face of the leaf.

The flowers are small, and disposed in little clusters on short stalks; the corolla is composed of five yellowish-white petals, the anthers are heart-shaped, and the pistil consists of three carpels united to form a three-chambered ovary. The flowers mature into red berries.

The leaves are sometimes eaten by the larvae of the moth Eloria noyesi.
Part Used in medicine : The leaves.
Constituents: Coca leaves contain the alkaloids Cocaine, Annamyl Cocaine, andTruxilline or Cocamine. As a rule the Truxillo or Peruvian leaves contain more alkaloid than the Bolivian, though the latter are preferred for medicinal purposes. Java Coca contains tropacocaine and four yellow crystalline glucosides in addition to the other constituents.

Medicinal Uses:
The actions of Coca depend principally on the alkaloid Cocaine, but the whole drug is said to be more stimulating and to have a mild astringency. In Peru and Bolivia the leaves are extensively chewed to relieve hunger and fatigue, though the habit eventually ruins the health. Coca leaves are used as a cerebral and muscle stimulant, especially during convalescence, to relieve nausea, vomiting and pains of the stomach without upsetting the digestion. A tonic in neurasthenia and debilitated conditions. The danger of the formation of the habit, however, far outweighs any value the drug may possess, and use of Coca in any form is attended with grave risks. Cocaine is a general protoplasmic poison, having a special affinity for nervous tissue; it is a powerful local anaesthetic, paralysing the sensory nerve fibres. To obtain local cutaneous anaesthesia the drug is injected hypodermically. Applied to the eye it dilates the pupil and produces complete local anaesthesia. It is a general excitant of the central nervous system and the brain, especially the motor areas producing a sense of exhilaration and an incitement to effort; large doses cause hallucinations, restlessness, tremors and convulsions. Those acquiring the Cocaine habit suffer from emaciation, loss of memory, sleeplessness and delusions.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erythroxylum_coca#Taxonomy
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/cocobo78.html

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Herbs & Plants

Eugenia cheken

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Botanical Name :  Eugenia cheken
Family: Myrtaceae
Subfamily: Myrtoideae
Tribe: Myrteae
Genus: Eugenia
KingdomPlantae
Order: Myrtales
Kingdom: Plantae
Order: Myrtales

Synonyms:  Arryan. Myrtus Chekan.

Habitat:  :  Eugenia cheken grows in Chile.

Common Name: Eugenia cheken

Description:
The flowers grow in the axils of the leathery leaves, white with a fourparted calyx, four petals and numerous stamens; the berry is crowned by the calyx, one or two-celled, containing one or two seeds. The leaves nearly sessile, oval, 1 inch long, smooth, slightly wrinkled, aromatic, astringent, and bitter….click & see the pictures

Constituents:  Volatile oil, tannin and four principles, viz. Chekenon, Chekenin, Chekenetin, and Cheken bitter, an amorphous, soluble bitter substance. The virtues of the leaves appear to be in the volatile oil they contain and in their tannin.

Medicinal Uses:  Most useful in the chronic bronchitis of elderly people and in chronic catarrh of the respiratory organs. Dose: Fluid extract, 1 to 2. fluid drachms.
Resources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenia
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/c/cheken52.html
http://www.henriettes-herb.com/eclectic/usdisp/eugenia-chek.html

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Herbs & Plants

Operculina turpethum

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Botanical Name :Operculina turpethum
Kingdom:Plantae
Order:    Solanales
Family:    Convolvulaceae
Genus:    Operculina
Species :Operculina turpethum

Synonyms:Ipomoea turpethum,  Turpeth Root. Indian Jalap. Trivrit. Nisoth. Operculina Turpethum.

Common Names: Turpeth, Fue vao, and St. Thomas lidpod.

Vernacular Names: Indian Jalap, St. Thomas lidpod, transparent wood rose, turpeth root, white day glory • Hindi: nisoth, panila, pitohri • Kannada: aluthi gida, bangada balli, bilitigade, devadanti, nagadanti • Malayalam: tigade • Marathi: or  nisottar • Sanskrit: nishotra,triputa,trivrutt, trivrutha • Tamil: adimbu, caralam, civatai, kumpncan, paganrai • Telugu: tegada, trivrut tellatega • Bengali: tevudi • Arabic: turbuth.

Parts Used: Dried root, stem.

Habitat:  India. Ceylon, Pacific Islands, China, Australia

Description:
:Operculina turpethum is perennial herbaceous, hairy vines growing 4 to 5 meter in length, endemic to India. It is commonly found in North Circars and Deccan region up to 3000 ft. The leaves are alternate, very variable in shape, ovate, oblong and truncate or cordate at the base. The flowers are large, axillary and solitary. Fruit is a capsule with conspicuous enlarged sepals and thickened pedicles….CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES

Constituents:
Resin, a fatty substance, volatile oil, albumen, starch, a yellow colouring matter, lignin, salts, and ferric oxide. The root contains 10 per cent of resin, which is a glucoside, Turpethin, insoluble in ether, but soluble in alcohol, to which it gives a brown colour not removable by animal charcoal. To obtain pure, the alcoholic solution is concentrated; the resin is precipitated by, and afterwards boiled with, water, then dried, reduced to powder, digested with ether, and finally redissolved by absolute alcohol and deposited by ether. After being treated several times in this way, it is obtained in the state of a brownish resin, yielding on pulverization a grey powder, which irritates the mucous membrane of the nostrils and mouth. It is inflammable, burning with a smoky flame and emitting irritant vapours. With strong bases it acts like jalapin, takes up water, and is transferred into a soluble acid, while with dilute acids it is decomposed into turpetholic acid, and glucose.

Medicinal  Uses: Cathartic and purgative. It is rather slow in its action, less powerful and less unpleasant than jalap.

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

Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operculina_turpethum
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/t/turpet31.html

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Herbs & Plants

Myrospermum Toluiferum

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Botanical Name :Myrospermum Toluiferum
Family:Fabaceae /Leguminosae
Subfamily:Faboideae
Tribe:Amburaneae
Genus:Myrospermum
Species:    M. frutescens
Kingdom:    Plantae
Order:  Fabales

Synonyms: Balsamum Tolutanum. Tolutanischer Balsam. Balsamum Americanum.

Common Name: Balsam of Tolu

Habitat :Myrospermum Toluiferum is a tree which grows throughout the forests of South America, especially on the elevated parts near Carthagena, Tolu, and in the Magdalena provinces of Columbia.

Description:
Myrospermum Toluiferum  is presumed to be similar to the Balsam of Peru tree,   differing only in the leaflets, which in this tree are thin, membranouss, obovate, taper-pointed; the terminal ones larger than the others.

CLICK & SEE THE PICTURES
The balsam is obtained by making incisions into the tree, and which flows into wax vessels. It is exported from Carthagena in tin, earthen, and other vessels. It has a pale, yellowish-red or brown color, solid and brittle, an agreeable vanilla-like odor, and a sweetish aromatic taste. It is soluble in alcohol, ether, and essential oils.

Medicinal Uses:
Constituents:  About 80 per cent amorphous resin, with cinnamic acid, a volatile oil, and a little vanillin, benzyl benzoate and benzyl cinnamate. It is freely soluble in chloroform, glacial acetic acid, acetone, ether, alcohol and liquor potassa, scarcely soluble in petroleum-benzine and benzol.

To distinguish it from Balsam of Peru it can be tested with sulphuric acid and water, yielding a grey mass instead of the lovely violet colour of the genuine Peruvian Balsam.

Like Balsam of Peru, it is a stimulant, tonic, and expectorant, and cannot be equalled for its curative effects in cases sof consumption, catarrh, bronchitis, asthma, and all inflammatory, ulcerated, spasmodic, or other morbid conditions of the respiratory organs and their adjuncts. The balsam dissolved in ether, and the vapor therefrom inhaled, is reported beneficial in coughs and bronchial affections of long standing, and I have no doubt it is so, as its virtues in such complaints are very wonderful.

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

Resources:
http://chestofbooks.com/health/herbs/O-Phelps-Brown/The-Complete-Herbalist/Tolu-Myrospermum-Toluiferum.html
http://www.botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/b/baloft07.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myrospermum

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