False Daisy

Overview

This plant is native to Asia, Australia and Africa. It is now found in the tropics, becoming particularly common in Australia in India, China, Queensland and New South Wales. They are harvested in early autumn. In eastern Asia, where the plant is widely harvested from the wild, it is a common herbal medicine. This plant is sometimes cultivated in Gabon as a pot-herb.

Vernacular Names

Han lian cao (Chinese), Hierba prieta (Spain), Eclipte blanche (French), Erva portao (Portuguese), Biu (Malaysia), Kyate-hman (Myanmar).

Agroecology

Present in damp places, waste areas and roadsides. Upland and lowland conditions are both occurring. It is a very popular rice and sugar cane field and coconut plantation weed, and is also found in humid places along water courses and roadsides, from lowlands up to 2,000 m altitude. It needs soil that is damp to wet and a place in some shade.

Morphology

• Stem - cylindrical, pale green or purplish, rooting at basal nodes, covered with long white hairs.
• Leaves - opposite, sessile or short-stalked, oblong to lance-shaped, with more or less coarse hair; margins, whole or slightly toothed, up to 2-16 cm long.
• Flowers - terminal and axillary, 1 cm across, white or cream, on peduncles to 7 cm long.
• Fruits - light brown to black, laterally-flattened achenes, wedge-shaped, 2-3 mm long 0.9 mm wide, apex with short white hairs, glabrous, covered with many small warts.

Cultivation

• Generative propagation (by seeds).

Chemical Constituents

• The plant contains a significant amount of resin and an ecliptic alkaloid.
• Roots yielded substituted yhiophenes for hentriacontanol, heptacosanol, and polyacetyene.
• Stigmasterol, alpha-terthienylmethanol, wedelolactone, demethylwedelolactone and demethylwedelolactone-7-glucosde are present in the leaves.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• Studies have shown hypoglycemic, hepatoprotective, diuretic, hypotensive, larvicidal, hypolipidemic, antioxidant analgesic, anti-inflammatory, memory-enhancing, anti-depressant, hair promoting, and memory-enhancing properties.
• Root is purgative and emetic.
• A decoction is used in the tradition of Chinese herbal medicine to invigorate the liver, prevent premature graying of the hair and prevent stagnant bleeding, especially from the uterus. It is also known to be a yin tonic; it is believed to prevent aging in Ayurvedic medicine.
• The juice is also used in the Caribbean for asthma and bronchitis. There, it is also used as a remedy for swollen glands as well as for dizziness, vertigo and blurred vision.
• In the Orient, it is used as a purgative internally and for skin diseases externally.
• The plant's decoction yields a blue-black dye. This is used in India to dye your hair and avoid hair loss, often mixed with coconut oil. To promote hair growth for newborn babies, a decoction of the leaves is used.
• Stonemasons in northern Vietnam rub the plant on their hands to avoid chalk-induced discomfort. Against tuberculosis, the fresh juice of a plant drunk with water is used.
• The roots or leaves are used internally for liver and spleen problems and oedema in Africa, while root juice is used for conjunctivitis in India.