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CLASSIFICATION

ORDER	: Asteales
FAMILY	: Asteraceae
GENUS	: Cyanthillium Blume
SPECIES	: cinereum (L.) H. Rob.
BOTANICAL NAME	: Cyanthillium cinereum (L.) H. Rob.
SYNONYMS	: ---
COMMON NAME	: Little ironweed.
TAMIL NAME	: Puvamkuruntal.
HINDI NAME	: Sahadevi.

PLANT DESCRIPTION

HABIT :  A small annual herb with hairy stem.

LEAVES :  Simple, alternate, ovate-elliptic or lanceolate obtuse or acute, mucronate, irregularly dentate or crenate-serrate, hairy.

FLOWERS :  Pinkish-violet, in small heads forming divaricate terminal corymbs. Bract 1, small, linear below each head, and small bracts in the forks of the peduncles. Involucral bracts linear-lanceolate, awned, silky below. Pappus hairy, white. Corolla equal, regular, tubular, lobes 5, Stamens 5, Ovary inferior, style bifid, hairy.

FRUIT :  Cypsela square, oblong, narrow at base, hairy.

FLOWERING AND FRUITING TIME :  November-February

MEDICINAL USES

The seeds yield a fatty oil and are used as an anthelmintic and alexipharmic; they are said to be quite effective against roundworms and threadworms.

They are also given for coughs, flatulence, intestinal colic and dysuria and for leucoderma, psoriasis and other chronic skin-diseases.

The seeds are made into a paste with lime juice and used for destroying pediculi.

IMAGES

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