Thursday, February 24, 2011

Drymaria cordata

Another interesting weed/herb is :

binomial name : Drymaria cordata
common name :  Tropical  chickweed

It is a spreading annual herb - it is around at present whereas normal chickweed is barely evident. It looks just like Stellaria media (chickweed) but has almost round opposite leaves  and much longer flower stalks:


The internet is fairly sparse on details of this weed - lots of suggestions of traditional herbal use  and use as a potherb but no real substantial reports
that I could locate.

Pubmed had only a few entries :

One indicated a useful anti-cough effect of an extract of the plant.  Codiene linctus is about the only really effective cough suppressant medically available but about 10-15% of patients are unable to tolerate codiene (it gives them stomach pains and nausea/vomiting). If that is the case it would be a useful addition to what is currently available. Pity there seems to be no clinical trials on it.
Another abstract indicated an anxiety  reducing effect and a further one indicated it had an anti-cancer effect.

Odds on this plant has lots of anti-oxidants  such as beta-carotene
but actual nutritional analysis was not evident. Also odds on it
would have the usual herb benefits of lowering blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar and possibly anti-inflammatory effects as well. However this is speculation on my part as I was unable to locate any good scientific studies.

 Here's a photo of a Meadow Argus (Junonia villida) butterfly from our recent Stanthorpe trip. These have been around our yard also at times.


http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_nymphs/MeadowArgus.htm

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