Scientific name: Spermacoce ocymoides Burm.f.
Family: Rubiaceae.
Synonym: Borreria ocymoides (Burm.f.) DC.
Bengali/Vernacular name: Arunpata.
English name: Purple-leaved button weed.
Description of the plant: A weak erect, decumbent, or procumbent annual herb, well-branched, 3-40 cm tall, with fine fibrous roots; stems with sparse to fairly dense crisped hairs on the wing-like prominent angles. Leaf-blades elliptic to elliptic-lanceolate, 0.4-3.5 cm long, 0.25-1.5 cm wide, rounded to acute at the apex, concavely narrowed into the petiole at the base, glabrous on both surfaces save for short marginal hairs or pubescent on the main nerve beneath; petiole 0-8 mm long, with scattered hairs; stipules with base 2 mm long. Flower clusters appear at the end of branches or in leaf axils. Sepals are narrowly triangular, length variable on individual flowers. Flowers are white, petals much longer than the tube. Fruit oblong, 1 mm long, compressed, finely transversely wrinkled, and very shortly pubescent. Seeds chestnut-brown, oblong-ellipsoids.
Plant parts used: Leaf, stem.
Ethnomedicinal uses: Decoction prepared from leaves and stems of the plant is taken twice a day (100 ml amount each time) for seven days to treat malaria.
The fresh juice is extracted from leaves and stems of the plant are taken thrice a day (5 ml amount each time) for three days to treat cold and fever.
A fresh juice is extracted from leaves and stems of the plant are taken thrice a day (5 ml amount each time) for three days to treat diarrhoea and dysentery.
Paste prepared from the leaves of the plant is applied externally to treat eczema and skin diseases.
Distribution: The species was recorded from Chittagong, and Cox’s Bazar.
Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….
