ALTERNANTHERA SESSILIS

 

ALTERNANTHERA SESSILIS 

Description:
Botanical name : Alternanthera sessilis
Family : Amaranthaceae

SANSKRIT SYNONYMS
Matsyaksi, Matsyagandhaa, Matsyaadini, Minaakshi, Bahli, Gandali, Gartkalambukaa, Vaahlikaa, Matsyaakshika
AYURVEDIC PROPERTIES
Rasa    : Tikta, Kashaya, Madhura
Guna   : Guru, Snigdha
Virya   : Seeta

PLANT NAME IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
English     : sessile joyweed
Hindi        : Gudrisag
Malayalam    : Meengani, Ponnangani, Ponnankanni keera.
Unani     : Machhechhi.
Distribution – Throughout India in moist places, growing wild and often cultivated

PLANT DESCRIPTION
A profucely branched prostrate herb, grows spreading over ground; leaves simple, opposite, fleshy, lanceolate, linear-oblong, acute, sometimes obtuse, glabrous, shortly petiolate; flowers small, white, in axillary clusters; fruits compressed obcordate urticles, seeds sub-orbicular and small. 

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Plant pacifies vitiated kapha and pitta, burning sensation, diarrhea, skin disease, dyspepsia, hemorroids, liver and spleen diseases and fever.

Useful part    :    Whole plant. 

CHEMICAL CONTENTS
Young shoots contain protein 5% and iron 16.7 mg/100 g. Leaves also contain a good amount of alpha- and beta-tocopherols. The plant gave stigmasterol, betasitosterol, a saturated aliphatic hydrocarbon and aliphatic ester.

Dosage - Whole plant—2–6 g powder.