Tridax procumbens L.
Vernacular name: Coat buttons, Mexican daisy, Ghamra, Vaanarpoonch (Hindi: घमरा, वानरपूंछ)
Species Name: Tridax procumbens L.
Family: Asteraceae
Habit: Annual or perennial, weak, straggling, procumbent herb, densely hairy.
Stem: Slender, branched, procumbent to ascending, hirsute.
Leaf: Opposite, simple, ovate to lanceolate, coarsely serrate or lobed, hispid, 1–8 × 0.5–4 cm.
Flowering: Throughout the year.
Flowers: Solitary terminal capitula on long hairy peduncles; ray florets white, 3-lobed; disc florets yellow, tubular, 5-lobed; involucre of several unequal bracts.
Fruit: Small, dark brown to black achene, narrowly obconic, with a plumose pappus.
Uses:
- Traditionally used for treating wounds and other ailments; crushed leaf juice is reported as a traditional wound remedy. Topical application of fresh leaf juice is used to treat bruises, cuts and fresh wounds as it stops bleeding and speed up the healing.
- Poultice of leaves are used for anti-inflammatory properties and reduce local swellings, blisters and boils.
- Plant extracts are used to treat sores, fungal infections and some skin ailments.
- Traditional remedies used this plant to treat heartburn, dysentery, diarrhea and gastritis.
- Extracts of leaves are used in traditional practices to promote hair growth.
- Plant is found to have antimicrobial, antioxidant, astringent and coagulant properties that helps to treat bacterial infections of strains like Staphylococcus aureus, protect cells from free radical damage, speed up blood clotting and contracting of tissues for faster wound closure.
- It is also an important widespread weed of disturbed habitats and has environmental and animal-feed uses. It is also used as natural insect repellant.
