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CLASSIFICATION

ORDER	: Asterales
FAMILY	: Asteraceae
GENUS	: Chromolaena DC.
SPECIES	: odorata (L.)
BOTANICAL NAME	: Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King & H. Rob.
SYNONYMS	: Eupatorium odoratum L.
COMMON NAME	: Siam weed.
TAMIL NAME	: Comunistpachai.
HINDI NAME	: Tivra gandha.

PLANT DESCRIPTION

HABIT:  Siam Weed is a big bushy herb or subshrub with long rambling but not twining branches.

LEAVES:  The leaves are arrowhead-shaped, 5–12 cm long and 3–7 cm wide, with three characteristic veins in a ‘pitchfork’ pattern. They grow in opposite pairs along the stems and branches. As the species name ‘odorata’ suggests, the leaves emit a pungent odour when crushed.

FLOWERS:  Clusters of 10–35 pale pink–mauve or white tubular flowers, 10 mm long, are found at the ends of branches.

SEEDS:  The seeds are dark coloured, 4–5 mm long, narrow and oblong, with a parachute of white hairs which turn brown as the seed dries.

MEDICINAL USES

The young leaves are crushed, and the resulting liquid can be used to treat skin wounds.

The phenolic compound in C. odorata leaves extract has been shown to prevent internal bleeding from diathesis and stomach ulcers.

The efficiency of healing wounds come from the antioxidant property of the drug or plant which enhances conserving the fibroblast and keratinocyte proliferation on those wounds

IMAGES

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