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Botany
· Creeping
or floating, smooth herbaceous plant. Floating stem frequently exhibits
cylindric white vesicles and 1.5 to 5 cm long.
· Leaves: obovate to oblong-ovate, rounded or obtuse, 1.5 to
5 cm long the floating stem frequently with cylindric white vesicles
at the node.
· Flowers: 5-parted and borne in the axil of the leaves. Calyx-lobes
lanceolate, about 7 cm long. Petals, obovate, white, pale yellow at
the base and about 12 mm long. Stamens 8, inserted; ovary 4-celled.
· Fruits: capsular, linear, cylindric, 2.3 cm long, about 3 mm
in diameter, narrow at the base, and somewhat longitudinally ridged.
Distribution
Found in the shallow
waters of streams and lakes and freshwater swamps throughout
the Philippines at low and medium altitudes.
Parts
utilized
· Part utilized:
entire plant.
· Collect the whole year round.
· Rinse, sun-dry or utilize fresh.
Properties
Antipyretic, diuretic,
blood refrigerant and antidote.
Antibiotic, antiphlogistic, alleviates
swelling.
Plain or sweet tasting, slightly cooling to refrigerant
in nature.
Uses
Edibility
· In southwestern China,
plant is eaten as vegetable.
Folkloric
· Cold with
fever, intense with cough, inability to urinate.
· Carbuncle, sprain, snakebites.
· Dosage: use 15 to 30 gms of dried material in decoction. Pounded
fresh material applied as poultice to carbuncle, sprains, and snakebites.
• In the Antilles,
in decoction used as astringent for dysentery.
Studies
• Antioxidant:
Study showed crude extract and four fractions to show antioxidant activities,
most active in the rosmarinic acid, kaemferol and quercetin components.
• Molluscicidal:
In a study of 43 plant species from 33 different families, 11 species, including J repens showed mollusicidal activity against snails ( Bullinus truncatus and Biomphalaria pfeifferi).
Availability
Wildcrafted.
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