Family:- Fabaceae/Leguminosae
Common name:- Touch-me-not, sensitive plant, shame plant.
Vernacular name:- Chui-mui(Hindi), Haniang bu namang(Nyishi)
description
Mimosa pudica is an annual to perennial, more or less prostrate creeping plant. The plant can grow up to 1 metre tall, but is more likely to be 15 - 45cm tall, the stems usually becoming woody. The plant is gathered from the wild for local medicinal use. Cause intestinal inflammation in grazing animals when it's hard & sticky. The roots are toxic in large doses.
Edible_Uses
The delicately fragrant flowers can be crystallized, or used in the preparation of distilled flower water. An oil similar to soybean oil (Glycine max) is obtained from the seed.
Medicinal_uses
According to Ayurveda, the root is bitter, acrid, cooling, vulnerary, alexipharmic. It is used in treatment of biliousness, leprosy, dysentery, vaginal and uterine complaints, inflammations, burning sensation, fatigue, asthma, leucoderma, blood diseases etc.
According to the Unani system of medicine, the root is resolvent, alternative, useful in diseases arising from blood impurities and bile, bilious fevers, piles, jaundice, leprosy etc. The root is used to control alcoholism. The leaves are bitter, mildly sudorific, tonic. A leaf tincture is given by teetotallers to drunkards to remedy drunkenness.
Agroforestry Uses:
The plant forms a dense ground cover and has been used to provide ground cover in coconut plantations. It has been introduced to subtropical, humid areas of the Transcaucasus where it is cultivated for erosion control, ground cover and green manure. The plant has been identified as having potential for phytoremediation of arsenic polluted areas in Thailand.
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