Fringed Spider Flower

Overview

The plant is native to West Africa and has become naturalized in various parts of tropical America as well as South East Asia. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine and source of edible leaves. In most part of Africa and Asia, the leaves as a cooked vegetable or added to soup. C. rutidosperma is known as an invasive plant that grows in abundance.

Vernacular Names

Musambe (Brazilian), Zhou zi bai hua cai (Chinese), Kleome (German), Lovanga (Cameroon), Mouzambe rampant (French), Neelavela (India), Jasmin del rio (Spanish), spiderplant (Australia), Batina-ba-baku (Congo Democratic Republic), Dougo dougo (Gabon), nanjinda (Ghana), maman/maman ungu (Malaysia/Indonesia), Jazmín de río (Mexico), àgbàlálà (Nigeria).

Agroecology

It prefers disturbed and ruderal environments, especially in humid and hot climates. It occurs up to 400 m altitude, in areas with an annual rainfall of 1,700–3,000 mm. Occasionally it is found as a weed up to 1,200 m altitude. It is present in many types of habitat, including epiphyte on trees, stone walls, and cliff faces, and is commonly found as a weed of disturbed ground, roadsides, gardens, crops, and abandoned lands.

Morphology

• Stems - widely branched from the base, subglabrous, pubescent or villous.
• Leaves - 3-foliolate, lower ones long-petioled, upper ones short-petioled or sessile, leaflets subsessile, rhombate-elliptic, obovate or oblong-lanceolate, attenuate or cuneate and webbed at base, obscurely crenulateserrulate and purple at margin, acute or acuminate at apex, 1-6 x 0.2-2 cm, glabrous, petiole up to 7 cm long.
• Flowers - in axils of leaves below a of - foliaceous bracts above; pedicels filiform,1-2 cm long, shortly glandular hairy. Sepals linear or linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 2.5-4 x 0.3-0.8 mm. Petals oblong-elliptic to oblanceolate, clawed at base, apiculate at apex, 8-12 x 1.5-2.5 mm, showy, pink, bluish violet, rarely white with pink streaks.
• Fruit - dry, dehiscent fruits are known as capsules, cylindrical with a beak at the tip (5-7 cm long, 0.4-0.5 cm wide).
• Seeds - tiny seeds that are brown to black and have a ribbed surface, globular-reniform, 2 mm in diameter.

Cultivation

• Propagated by seeds.

Chemical Constituents

• Steroids, sterols, triterpenoids, tannins, flavonoids, saponins, phenolic substances, mucilages, amphetamine, 10,13- octadecadiynoc acid, phytol,eucalyptol, ethanol.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The leaves was reported have antiplasmodial activity, diuretic, laxative, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antimicrobial, antioxidant and free radical scavenging activities.
• The roots are reported to have hypoglycaemic effect, anthelmintic and wound healing activities.
• In Ghana, leaf sap is applied to cure earache and deafness; leaf extract is used to treat irritated skin.
• In Nigeria, it is used to treat convulsions.
• In Cameroon, the plant is used as antimalarial by traditional healers.
• The plant is used in the treatment of paralysis, epilepsy, convulsion and spasm.
• In India that C. rutidosperma relieves ear pain and skin diseases.