Erect Spiderling

Overview

Boerhavia erecta originates from the New World but now has a pantropical distribution. It occurs throughout the regions of tropical Africa with a distinct dry season, from West Africa east to Somalia and south to South Africa. The plant is often gathered from the wild, especially in India, for local medicinal use.

Vernacular Names

No found data on this. Need further research.

Agroecology

Boerhavia erecta occurs in open bushland, on waste ground, in agricultural land and along roadsides, up to 1,500(–2,500) m altitude, usually on sandy or rocky soils. It prefers sunny localities and a seasonal climate with a pronounced dry season.

Morphology

• Roots - thick taproot.
• Stems - branching mainly from the base, ascending to erect, fleshy, green, often flushed with red, lower parts thinly hairy, upper parts glabrous, nodes swollen.
• Leaves - opposite, simple, about equal; stipules absent; petiole 1–3.5(–4) cm long; blade broadly lanceolate to ovate, 2.5–4.5(–8) cm × 1.5–2.5(–6.5) cm, base rounded to truncate, apex rounded to acute, margins sinuate, pale green to whitish beneath, sometimes with red marginal glands.
• Flowers - bisexual, regular; pedicel 1–3 mm long; perianth tubular-campanulate, distinctly constricted halfway, lower part obconical, surrounding the ovary, 5-ribbed, green, upper part 5-lobed, 1–1.5 mm × 2 mm, lobes emarginate, white to pale pink or dotted with red, soon falling; stamens 2(–3), slightly exserted; ovary superior, seemingly inferior, 1-celled, style slightly exserted, stigma head-shaped.
• Fruits - an achene enclosed by the thickened lower part of perianth (collectively called anthocarp); anthocarp obconical or club-shaped, 3–4 mm × 1.5–2 mm apex truncate, sharply 5-ribbed, with glabrous ribs, 1-seeded.
• Seeds - obovoid, pale brown.

Cultivation

Propagated by seeds.

Chemical Constituents

Alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, tannins, glycosides, betanins, and phenols.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The root is valued especially as a diuretic, but is also anthelmintic, cardiotonic, expectorant, febrifuge, hepato-protective, laxative, stomachic, and in higher doses, emetic and purgative. As a diuretic it is useful in treating cases of strangury, jaundice, enlarged spleen, gonorrhoea and other internal inflammations. In moderate doses it is successful in the treatment of asthma.
• The roots are used in a preparation for treating the stump of a newly severed umbilical cord.
• The dried root is powdered and added to local beer as an aphrodisiac.
• Used externally, a paste of the roots is rubbed on abscesses and ulcers to ripen them.