Emilia sonchifolia

Back onto edible weeds.The talk at Springdale Garden Club went well and certainly stimulated some interesting questions.



We had a koala in a small tree at the back of our vegie garden 2 days ago - it is always exciting to see them. This one was quite large, but would not pose well for a photo - therefore it must have been a male!






Here's another edible weed:

binomial name : Emilia sonchifolia
common name : lilac tassel flower, cupid's shaving brush, purple emily

The latin species name of sonchifolia gives a clue as to what the plant looks like - it has sowthistle like leaves.

Identification:

It is a relatively sparse spreading weed with purplish green leaves like sowthistle. Lower leaves are deeply irregular and toothed with lobes almost round. Upper leaves are hemiamplexicaul (grasp the stem) elongated and coarsely dentate (toothed) The flowers are a lilac color unlike the yellow of dandelion/catsears/sonchus. Overall height is to about 80cm. It is an annual plant that occurs in our garden beds and is present now, I think however, that it is around most of the time in my garden. This photo is the best we could do- there are probably better images than this on Google images



History:

Young leaves are used in rural China in a manner similar to European use of dandelion. Similarly in Java the leaves are eaten with rice, and in Central America in salads. In Indian medicine it has been used to treat fever, asthma and diarrhoea. In Nigeria, an extract is used to treat infantile convulsions.

Nutritional :

Not much information available . Anti-oxidants no doubt and some pretty amazing chemicals yet to be well documented (see medical reports). It does seem to have pyrrolidizine alkaloids.

What part to eat :

Young leaves definitely: Tim Low states that flowering plant leaves are too bitter to bother with. We have tried some steamed leaves, they have a definite carroty flavour. It would be ok in a salad, well diced or a few young leaves mixed with other greens. Don't eat much of this plant or too often.

Medical reports (Pubmed/Scirus):

A leaf extract showed a marked anti-inflammatory effect on the rat paw oedema model Similarly an extract also had a marked anti-convulsant effect (confirms the Nigerian use above) A Methanolic extract also had an anti-tumour effect and was cytotoxic to lymphoma cells but not normal lymphocytes. It also decreased the development of solid and ascitic tumours in rats. Finally, a fresh juice and methanolic extract showed potent anti-oxidant activity.

Conclusion :

Another interesting weed to try. Shame it has pyrrolidizine alkaloids . Only use occasionally and a few leaves at a time.

Tom

ps away for 3 days so no posting

ref: Tim Low -Wild Herbs of Australia and New Zealand