Oenanthe javanica (Blume) DC.

Family: Apiaceae

Synonym:Sium javanicum Blume

Bengali/Vernacular name: Bon dhonia, Pan tulsi, Pan-turasi.

English name: Water dropwort, Java water dropwort.

Description of the plant: A perennial, glabrous, often aquatic herb, root fibrous, stem terete, erect or ascending from a creeping base, up to 80 cm tall, much branches. Basal leaves petiolate, blade oblong-ovate, 1-2 pinnate, ultimate segments ovate or rhombic-ovate, margin serrate. Inflorescence a compound, many-flowered umbel, terminal and opposite the leaves; flowers small, white. Fruit a subglobose schizocarp.

Plant parts used: Leaf.

Herbal uses: Decoction prepared from the leaves of the plant is taken with honey thrice a day (10 ml amount each time) for seven days to treat influenza.

The leaves are chewed with wild ginger and traditional ash salt as an antidote to poisoning.
The leaves are rubbed onto the forehead in order to ease a headache.

An extract prepared from the leaves of the plant by boiling in water is taken thrice a day (10 ml amount each time) for three days to treat fever.

The stem is chewed and swallowed to ease the cough.

A decoction made with the leaves of the plant, after adding some sugar it is taken thrice a day until the jaundice is cured.

An extract made with the plant is taken thrice a day (10 ml amount each time) until the haematuria is cured.

Distribution: It is grows in Barisal, Patuakhali, Noakhali, Mymensingh, and Rajshahi districts.

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