Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MH013 : Polycarpaea corymbosa (L.) Lam.

Plant Category : Herbs

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : 23

Synonym : Achyranthes corymbosa L.;

Plant Common Name : Oldman’s cap, Palllipoondu

Plant Family : Caryophyllaceae

Description : Robust annual. Stems 10-30 cm, erect to ascending, branching from the base, white woolly at the base. Leaves opposite, or apparently whorled, 10-15 x 0.5-0.75 mm, linear to linear-subulate, 1-nerved, glabrous or nearly so when mature. Stipules c. 3 mm, lanceolate acuminate, ciliate. Flowers in compact, terminal cymes, with corymbose branching. Pedicels as long as or smaller than the sepals, woolly. Sepals 3-3.5 mm, lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous, entirely scarious silvery-white. Petals shorter than the sepals, emarginate. Capsule included in the sepals, dark brown. Valves with a narrow thickened yellow margin. Seeds small subtrigonous, smooth. Fl. Per.: February-March.

Plant Location in Melghat : On rocky substrata on plateaux

Medicinal Use / Activity : anti-inflammatory, astringent, demulcent; plant-spermicidal, applied as poultice, prescribed in jaundice in the form of pills with molasses

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: alpha-1-barrigenol; Camelliagenin; Stigmasterol

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (1):

Stigmasterol;

Plant's Current Status : -

Plant's Cross Database Reference : 259142

Reference : Dhore M. A. (1984) The flora of melghat tiger reserve - C.P. Khare; Indian Medicinal Plants, An Illustrated Dictionary Springer Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg (2007), p. 219 508, 583

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

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass : Caryophyllidae
Order : Caryophyllales
Family : Caryophyllaceae - Pink family
Genus : Polycarpaea Lam. - polycarpaea
Species : Polycarpaea corymbosa (L.) Lam. - oldman's cap

Polycarpaea corymbosa (L.) Lam. - oldman's cap