Climbing wool plant

Overview

Native to Southern China, Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine. It is sometimes cultivated as an ornamental, especially the form with a purplish tinge.

Vernacular Names

Mông gà (Vietnamese), Khruea khaao tok (Thailand), Do:k khaix ped (Laos).

Agroecology

Locally common in abandoned fields, brushwood and hedges, at elevations at elevations as low as 150 m up to 2,300 m.

Morphology

• Stem - erect, branched, stem and branched are round and channeled.
• Leaves - Leaves ovate-elliptic, oblong, or lanceolate, 1.5-8 × 0.5-3.5 cm, margin entire, densely whitish-woolly on both surfaces.
• Inflorescence - an axillary and terminal spike, forming a lax raceme or terminal panicle.
• Flowers - small, usually bisexual but sometimes unisexual, solitary in the axil of persistent bracts, subtended by 2 bracteoles, tepals hairy abaxially, white or pink. 
• Fruit - a much compressed utricle, about 1 mm in diameter, bursting irregularly, 1- seeded.
• Seed - reniform, shiny black.

Cultivation

• Propagation is by stem cuttings.

Chemical Constituents

• Tannins, flavonoids, terpenoids, sphingolipids, polyphenolic compounds and betacyanins.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• As diuretic (valued in cases of lithiasis and catarrh of the bladder, and for prostatic ailments) and as vermifuge.
• It is used in treatment of, rheumatic arthritis and pain in muscles.
• It exhibits diuretic, anti-inflammatory, antihyperglycemic, and anti-leishmania activities. 
• The whole plant is used as a tonic, sedative and dermatitis. The decoction made from young branches of the plant used internally against haematuria and irregular or painful menstruation.
• The roots are used for dysentery and paste of the roots is applied externally for headache.
• In India the dried plants are used against diabetes and malaria.
• The seeds are used against bronchitis.
• Leaves and roots of the plant have been used for body pain and the paste of the leaves and roots is applied to the affected area
• Decoctions of young branches are used internally against haematuria and irregular or painful menstruation.