Euphorbia tithymaloides

Scientific name: Euphorbia tithymaloides L.

Family: Euphorbiaceae

Synonym: Pedilanthus tithymaloides (L.) Poit.

Bengali/Vernacular name: Rangchita, Belatisiz, Berachita.

Tribal name: Moroo nak (Marma), Dunk-shu-bawn (Rakhaing).

English name: Jew’s slipper, Japanese poinsettia, Milk hedge, Slipper plant.

Description of the plant: A subsucculent shrub, young shoot puberulent, glabrous at age. Leaves stipulate, petiolate, leaf blade ovate or elliptic-ovate, acute or obtuse at the apex, cuneate at the base. Cyathia in terminal crowded cymes; involucre scarlet, bright red or orange, slipper-shaped.

Plant parts used: Stem.

Medicinal uses: A decoction is made with the stems of the plant is taken thrice a day (20 ml amount each time) for one month to treat asthma.

A paste is made with the stems of the plant is applied on the fractured bone and kept for three days by tying with a piece of cloth, then again a new bandage is made and kept for five days to treat bone fracture.

Fresh juice extracted from stems of the plant, after warming it is taken once a day (two tea spoons amount) for five days to treat sinusitis.

Paste prepared from stems of the plant is applied on the infected skin for the treatment of leucoderma.

Distribution: This species naturally grows in Chittagong and Dhaka districts. It is also cultivated in many places as a hedge plant.

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