Little Ironweed

Overview

Little Ironweed is native to Africa, tropical and temperate Asia, and Australia. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions in America and islands in the Pacific. It is a cosmopolitan weed common in disturbed areas in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine. It is sometimes cultivated as a vegetable in Kenya.

Vernacular Names

Maryuna (Indonesian), Ye xiang niu (Chinese), Reinan-nogiku (Japanese), Rumput tahi babi (Malaysia), Agas-moro (Philippines), Byaing-chay-pin (Myanmar), Kaan thuup (Thailand), Machadita (Spanish), Ayapana sauvage (French). 

Agroecology

Little Ironweed found at elevations up to 1,300 m. It needs full sunlight and moderate water availability to grow. It prefers sandy-loam soils but can be found growing on a range of soils with pH ranging from 4 to 6. It is able to tolerate semiarid conditions as well as partial salinity conditions.

Morphology

• Stems - unbranched or more commonly few-branched.
• Leaves - petiolate or distal ones sessile; obovate, base cuneate, apex acute to obtuse, lower surface pilose, usually glandular.
• Inflorescence - consist of 5 to numerous heads, 13-20-flowered.
• Flowers - rather bright-purple, the corolla all equal, tubular, slender 5-lobed, about 20 in each head, twice as long as the involucral bracts which are linear and silky.
• Fruits - achenes 1.2–2 mm long, subfusiform, terete not ribbed, inner pappus white, exserted from involucre and nearly as long as the corollas.

Cultivation

• Generative propagation is by seed. Seed germination time is  8 to 33 days.

Chemical Constituents

• Steroid, flavonoid, glycoside, saponins, tannin, phenolic acids, phenolic glycosides, flavonoids, anthocyanin, α-cadinol, δ-cadinene, thymohydroquinone dimethyl ether, α-humulene, τ-muurolol, terpinen-4-ol, and elemol.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The extract of these plants possesses significant antitumor and anti-diarrheal effects.
• The whole plant is used in the treatment of fevers, piles, and as a poultice on cuts, wounds, and skin diseases.
• The leaves and young stems are abortifacients, blood purifiers, and diuretics. A decoction is used to treat kidney disorders, swellings, inflammation, lower abdominal pains, and menstrual pains; also to expel the placenta and as an abortifacient
• The root is used in treating dropsy and scorpion stings. The juice of the root is used in the treatment of hemorrhoids, diarrhea, and stomach disorders.
• Infusion of plant taken internally for cough, to wash newborn infants, also used for children with incontinence of urine.
• In India, whole herb juice is used most frequently – for eye problems, for poisonous insect and snake bites.
• In Thailand, the leaves are used in the treatment of asthma and bronchitis.