Euphorbia hirta explained

Euphorbia hirta (sometimes called asthma-plant) is a pantropical weed, originating from the tropical regions of the Americas.^[1] It is a hairy herb that grows in open grasslands, roadsides and pathways. It is widely used in traditional herbal medicine across many cultures, particularly for asthma, skin ailments, and hypertension.^[2] It is also consumed in herbal tea form as folk medicine for fevers in the Philippines (where it is known as tawa-tawa), particularly for dengue fever and malaria.^{[3] [4]}

Description

This erect or prostrate annual herb can grow up to 60cm (20inches) long with a solid stem that is furnished with many yellow to reddish coarse hairs, and produces an abundant white latex.^[5] There are stipules present. The leaves have an oblique base and are simple, elliptical to slightly rhombic, hairy (on both upper and lower surfaces but particularly on the veins on the lower leaf surface), with a finely dentate margin, the veins upperside being deep-set and conspicuous on the underside, and the leaf surface somewhat leathery. Leaves occur in opposite pairs on the stem. The flowers are unisexual and found in axillary cymes at each leaf node, held as dense balls of flowers and fruit capsules usually close to the stem, the flower glands with tiny white/pinkish petal-like appendages. The fruit is a capsule with three valves (creating 3 sides), uniformly appressed hairy, containing tiny (0.7–0.9 mm), oblong, four-sided orange to pink or red seeds. It has a white or brown taproot. FNA

Further reading

• Pratheepa . Vijayakumari . Sukumaran . NatarajaPillai . Effect of Euphorbia hirta plant leaf extract on immunostimulant response of Aeromonas hydrophila infected Cyprinus carpio . . 13 November 2014 . 2 . 10.7717/peerj.671 . 25405077 . e671 . 4232839 . free .
• Quy . Trinh . Ly . Le . An investigation of antidiabetic activities of bioactive compounds in Euphorbia hirta Linn using molecular docking and pharmacophore . Medicinal Chemistry Research . April 2014 . 23 . 4 . 2033–2045 . 10.1007/s00044-013-0794-y . 1918125 .

External links

• PROTA4U: Euphorbia hirta

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney PlantNET Database Entry . Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney . 2021-01-23 .
2. Kumar S, Malhotra R, Kumar D . 2010 . Euphorbia hirta: Its chemistry, traditional and medicinal uses, and pharmacological activities . Pharmacognosy Reviews . 4 . 7 . 58–61 . 10.4103/0973-7847.65327. 22228942. 3249903 . free .
3. Yam . Hilton Y. . Montaño . Marco Nemesio E. . Sia . Isidro C. . Heralde . Francisco M. III . Tayao . Lotgarda . Ethnomedicinal Uses of tawatawa (Euphorbia hirta Linn.) in Selected Communities in the Philippines: a Non-invasive Ethnographic Survey Using Pictures for Plant Identification . Acta Medica Philippina . 2018 . 52 . 5 . 10.47895/amp.v52i5.325 . free .
4. News: 'Tawa-tawa': Herbal supplement that can help fight dengue . 7 September 2021 . PhilStar Global . 8 October 2019.
5. Web site: Open Source for Weed Assessment in Lowland Paddy Fields (OSWALD) . . 2007-07-21 . Asia IT&C Programme of the European Union . August 30, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130709143931/http://www.oswaldasia.org/species/e/euphi/euphi_en.html . July 9, 2013 .