Disclaimer : This databank is curated from literature and may not claim for any medications or directly use of plants without any prior knowledge or consultation of physician.



Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family

MH015 : Portulaca quadrifida L.

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Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : 25  
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Order : Caryophyllales
Family : Portulacaceae - Purslane family
Genus : Portulaca L. - purslane
Species : Portulaca quadrifida L. - chickenweed
Plant Location in Melghat : On wet Mud flats in stream  
Plant Category : Herbs  
Plant's Current Status : -  
Plant Family : Portulacaceae  

 
Plant Common Name : Chival, Chicken weed, Wild purslane
 
Synonym : Illecebrum verticillatum Burm. f.
Meridiana quadrifida Poir.
Portulaca anceps A. Rich.
Portulaca diptera Zipp. ex Sparo
Portulaca quadrifida var. meridiana DC.
Portulaca repens Roxb. ex Wight & Arn.
Portulaca. geniculata Royle
Portulaca. linifolia Forssk.
Portulaca. meridiana Linn. f.


Description : Diffuse annual, prostrate, glabrous, somewhat fleshy, rooting at nodes. Tap root somewhat woody, nodal adventitious roots fibrous, up to 3 cm long. Stem and branches filiform, internodes 2-20 (-35) mm long. Leaves opposite, sessile to subsessile, ovate-oblong to elliptic-oblong or ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 3-10 mm long, 2-3 mm broad, acute or somewhat obtuse, fleshy; stipular hairs copious, silvery white, 2-10 mm long. Flowers solitary terminal, yellow, 6-8 mm across, surrounded by a 4-leaved involucre and silvery hairs. Sepals equal, membranous, basally united into a minute tube half embedded in the floral axis, ovate-oblong, 3- 4.5 mm long, 2-2.5 mm broad, obtuse. Petals 4, united at the base, pandurate, 3- 4 mm long, 1.5-2 mm broad, obtuse, yellow. Stamens 8, adnate to petals; filaments filiform, 1.5-2.5 mm long. Carpels 4, syncarpous; ovary c. 2 mm, half sunk in floral axis; style c. 2 mm long, quadrifid, with 4 linear, reclinate stigmas. Capsule 3.5- 4.5 mm long, 2.5-3 mm in diam., oblong-conical. Seeds black, c. 1 mm, reniform, somewhat papillose. Fl. Per. Aug.-March.
 
Curated Medicinal Use / Activity : Diuretic, to treat Rheumatism and gynaecological diseases, as a sedative, analgesic and cardiotonic, to treat fever, disorders of the urinary tract, worm diseases, as a tonic and choleretic, to treat dysentery, and to apply externally to ulcers, eczema and dermatitis
 
Plant's Phytochemicals : -

Reference : ~ Santosh Kumar Singh, Jay Ram Patel, Prashant Kumar Dubey and Sonia Thakur; "A review on anti-asthmatic activity of traditional medicinal plants"; IJPSR (2014); 5(10): 4109-4116 PMID :

~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID :