Family: Tiliaceae
Synonym: Triumfetta indica Lam.
Bengali/Vernacular name: Bon okra.
Tribal name: Sakhap nathing (Garo), Nersa (Murang).
English name: Burr bush.
Description of the Plant: An herb or undershrub, up to 2 m tall. Leaves simple, alternate; blade ovate to rhomboid in shape with 3-5 lobes, sometimes nearly as wide as broad, and 2-10 cm long, margins irregularly serrate, leaf surfaces softly-pubescent with stellate hairs, blade palmately veined. Flowers small yellow, clustered on the leaf axils, petals 5, stamens 10-15. Fruit a capsule, globose or subglobose, indehiscent, tomentose.
Plant parts Used: Leaf, flower, fruit, seed, and root.
Traditional
Uses: Paste prepared from the leaves of the plant is applied for the
treatment of pimples, and blisters.
A decoction of the plant in rice water, or of the root and bark, is used to
treat diarrhea, dysentery, internal hemorrhages, and gonorrhea.
Fruit and pounded roots are believed to promote childbirth.
Paste prepared from the flowers is applied as a poultice on boils.
A decoction of leaves and roots is drunk against cough and a decoction of the
roots alone in case of poisoning by poisonous fish.
Seeds are mixed with sorghum and fed to horses against constipation, and worms.
Patients with severe cold are treated by giving them a daily sauna with the
boiling leaves.
The leaves and flowers are used as a treatment against leprosy.
A decoction of the root is used as a remedy for internal ulcerations.
A paste made with the leaves of the plant is applied externally to the snake
bite place by tightly tying with a piece of cloth to treat it.
Distribution: It is found throughout the country as a weed.
Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….
