Phyllanthus maderaspatensis, Linn. Phyllanthus urinaria, Linn. Phyllanthus simplex, Retz. Phyllanthus reticulatus, Poir.

HERBAL

MEDICINAL

PHYLLANTHUS

Phyllanthus maderaspatensis, Linn.

Phyllanthus urinaria, Linn.

Phyllanthus simplex, Retz.

Phyllanthus reticulatus, Poir.

by

RETTODWIKART THENU, S.Pd

Phyllanthus maderaspatensis, Linn.

This plant was first described by botanists at the grounds around the city of Madras. So it is commonly known as the Madras leaf-flower

NAMES

It does not seem to have any Sanskrit name. It is known as kanocha, kanauka and hazarmani in Hindi; marur in Arabic; morurshat in Iranian; kanocha in Gujarati; nala usarika (the good arnalaka) in Telugu; and mela nelli; madras nelli (the good āmalaka from Madras) in Kannada.

BOTANY

This is a much bigger plant than the first and is either found erect or decumbent (i.e. growing along the ground as if it is lying on it). It is found throughout drier parts of India. It also grows quite commonly in the drier parts of Africa, Arabia, Java, the Far East, China and even Australia. The Madras leaf-flower is an erect or spreading sub-shrub, growing to only 50 cm tall; it is well-branched and hairless. The leaves are arranged in two they are inverted, lance-shaped or obovate, 1-4 cm long, up to 5 mm wide. On the underside, there is a glaucous tip which is blunt or rounded with a sharp point. The stipules have white margins. The male flowers arise two or three together with one female. The male flowers are on stalks up to 0.5 mm long while the female flowers are on longer stalks. up to 1 mm long. The female flower petals are obovate with white margins, 2 mm long and 1.5 mm wide, twice the size of the male petals. The capsule is about 3 mm in diameter, with the seeds being 1-1.5 mm long. The seeds are somewhat like those of linseed (aiasi or Linum usitatissium, Linn.). They are brown, soft, smooth, slippery and triangular, rounded on the back and beautifully marked like basketwork.

PROPERTIES

Extracts of Phyllanthus maderaspatensis were found to contain resins, steroids, triterpenoids, alkaloids, phenolic compounds, tannins and saponins, but no glycosides. The plant also contains the lignans phyllanthin and hypophyllantin, which are responsible for hepatoprotective activity, but in low concentrations.

Butanol, ethanol and water extracts of the whole plant were found to bind hepatitis B virus and E antigens. The n-hexane extract was found to have a pronounced hepato-protective activity and showed anti-oxidant activity and stimulation of bile production. The antioxidant activity is attributed to the phenolic compounds. The results of tests in mice clearly indicated that an ethanol extract has a protective effect against adriamycin-induced toxicity and it also showed an anti anti-oxidant effect.

The plant has shown anti-bacterial and anti-fungal activities. The seeds have confirmed laxative, carminative and diuretic properties. Many of the medicinal uses of the plant are related to the astringent action of tannins.

A clear deep yellow oil can be extracted from the seeds. It contains myristic, palmitic, stearic, oleic and linolenic acids and B-sitosterol. The defatted seed cake contains a fibrous mucilage which can be hydrolysed to galactose,arabinose, rhamnose and aldo-binic acid.

The plant is treasured by Yunānī physicians. According to them, its seeds (the most useful part) are second-degree hot and first-degree dry (rūkṣa). Its medicinal actions include: clearing obstructions, dissolving morbid swellings of wounds, mucilaginousness (slimy) and mitigating vitiations of the body. When soaked in water, the seeds absorb the liquid and swell up to display a fine coating all round. It is due to this property that they find their use in medicine.

USES IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

1. Respiratory problems The leaves are expectorant (helping discharge of phlegm from the throat) and diaphoretic (inducing sweating).

2. Headache In southern India, an infusion is made from leaves and applied on the head to relieve headache.

3. Genito-urinary problems

i.The leaves are useful against urinary obstructions.

ii. If the seed mucilage is given along with jasmine oil, a patient with pitta aggravations will get relief.

4. Gastrointestinal problems

i. The seeds have a bad taste but they have useful medicinal properties. They are a carminative, laxative, tonic to the liver and also a diuretic.

ii. Stomach pain
If the seeds are given internally, they strengthen the liver and intestines, offering relief from pain. In fact, they are given after frying, either by themselves or along with other suitable drugs, for dysentery with blood and diarrhoea.

5. Abcesses

i. Many Yunānī physicians consider the seeds of this plant much better than those of linseed at hastening abscesses to maturity and so ultimately curing them. For this purpose, the seeds are ground, mixed with honey and then applied. The seeds are slimy and mucilaginous and therefore useful in all cases where such action is required.

ii. A poultice made from its leaves is applied externally and tied over boils, pustules and hard abscesses with quite good effect.

6. Ear ache If the seeds are removed from their outer coating, mixed well in breast milk and then a few drops placed in the ear, any shooting pains in the ears will be relieved.

Phyllanthus urinaria, Linn.

This plant is so named because it corrects many urinary disorders.

NAMES

This herb does not seem to have any name in Sanskrit, though occasionally the term tāmravallī (coppery creeper) is used. It is called hazarmani or lalbhuiavala (red āmalaka that grows near the soil) in Hindi; hazarmani in Bengali; kharsat, bhumiavaali in Gujarati. Its name in many other languages implies that it is a shrub which is red in colour. These names are lalmundaz avail in Marathi, erra ustrika in Telugu and kempu nellanellii in Kannada. It is called shivappu nelli (the red āmalaka) in Tamil.

BOTANY

The plant, reaching around 2 feet, has small alternate leaves resembling those of the mimosa tree, disposed in two ranges. The leaves are large at the tip and smaller towards the petiole. When touched, the leaves fold inwards automatically. The flowers are a greenish-white, minute and appear at the axils of the leaves, as well as the seed capsules. Numerous small green-red fruits, round and smooth, are found along the underside of the stems, which are erect and red.

This plant is considered a competitive weed in some regions, because of its great number of seeds, its high shade tolerance and extensive root system.

MEDICAL IMPORTANCE

The plant is diuretic, astringent and cooling. In the form of a decoction, it is used against jaundice and gonorrhoea. It is useful in cases of thirst, bronchitis and also leprosy. In general, the plant is used much in the same manner as P. niruri, Linn. and, in fact, is very often employed as a substitute for it. A decoction from the dried plant is given in a dose of one teaspoon to ward off jaundice. Because of its excellence as a diuretic, it is profitably used for removing morbid fluid collections in the body or dropsy (jalodara). The tribals of Chotanagpur use the root as a mild sedative to get small children to sleep, whilst the juice from the leaves is given in coconut milk as an appetizer to children. The leaves are also well liked by cattle.

On the islands of La Réunion, the plant is used as a diuretic, sudorific (causing sweat), and as a purificatory and regulatory agent for menstrual flow.

In Cambodia, the plant is used as a tonic, astringent and febrifuge (relieving fever).

Phyllanthus simplex, Retz.

This is a slender, erect, simple or slightly branched, smooth, annual herb 20 to 50 cm in height. The stems are flattened and usually purplish. The leaves are two-ranked, oblong-linear, 1.5 to 3 cm long, and 6 to 9 mm wide. The flowers are very small, solitary, and borne on the axils of the leaves. The capsules are smooth, depressed-globose, and 3 to 3.5 mm in diameter.

It grows all over India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, China and the Pacific islands.

NAMES

No names seem to exist for this plant also in Sanskrit. It is called moti bhui avail in Gujarati and Marathi, a term meaning ‘a bigger bhūmī āmalaka’, which is precisely what the plant is. The Telugu name, ucchi usarika denotes the same.

RECENT FINDINGS

The fruit has been shown to contain an oxalic acid, also found in another popular herb with a sour taste, Oxalis Corniculata, Linn.

USES IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

This widely distributed plant finds many useful applications in medicine.

i. According to Kirtikar and Basu, and Caius, Indians use equal parts of the fresh leaves, flowers and fruit, and jīraka (cumin seeds) with sugar, made into an electuary, for the cure of gonorrhoea. A teaspoonful is given twice a day.

ii. Its fresh leaves, reputed to contain antiseptic properties, are crushed and mixed with buttermilk to make a medicated wash to cure itching in children.

iii.The root is used in Chota Nagpur as an external application for healing abscesses of the breasts.

Phyllanthus reticulatus, Poir.

Phyllanthus reticulatus is usually a dense deciduous shrub or small tree with a distinct smell that is emitted by minute flowers when they open towards the early evening. It is one of the fascinating and characteristic smells of Africa. It frequently grows along water courses, but also in scrubs and hedges, on waste places, and in mixed evergreen forest. It is found in India and Taiwan at up to 2000 m altitude. This species is often common in moist places.

P. reticulatus is found throughout the Old World tropics. In Asia it is widely distributed from India and Sri Lanka to southern China and the whole of south-east Asia.

NAMES

This herb does have a few names in Sanskrit, Kṛṣṇa kambhoji (referring to the darkish āmalaka-like fruits), bahupṣpā (many-flowered). It is called buinowla and panjoli in Hindi; pajuli in Bengali; Krishna nelli (dark amalaka) in Kannada; and karup puphilanji (darkish philanji) in Tamil.

Phyllanthus reticulatus, Poir.

BOTANY

A monoecious scandent shrub or small bushy tree, up to 5 m tall (in Africa rarely upto 18 m tall); trunk upto 15 cm in diameter, bark rough, brown to grey, branchlets slender. Leaves: differently shaped; spirally arranged scale-like, ca. 1.5 mm long on orthotropic shoots; plagiotropic shoots with normally developed, distichous, elliptic to (ob)ovate leaves, 1-3(-5) cm x 0.5-2(-2.5) cm, entire, cuneate to rounded at base, obtuse to emarginate at the apex, glabrous and shortly petiolate. Flowers: in few-flowered fascicles or solitary in leaf axils, uni-sexual, often a single female flower and some male flowers together, sometimes arranged on leafless shoots and those then seemingly long racemes, with 5(-6) perianth lobes and 5(-6) disk glands; male flowers with 5(-6) stamens; female flowers with a superior subglobose ovary, crowned by two-lobed styles. Fruit: a depressed-globose berry, up to 7 mm in diameter, usually a blueish-black when ripe with a dark purplish pulp, 6 and many-seeded. Seeds: trigonous and upto 2 mm long and blackish. The indumentum of leaves, stem and flowers is variable, from glabrous to densely pubescent. In Africa, two varieties have been distinguished: Var. reticulatus with pubescent flowering shoots and sometimes also leaves and stems, and Var. glaber (Thwaites) Muell. Arg. with all its parts glabrous.

RECENT FINDING

The leaves and bark contain tannic acid, gum a new purine derivative, 3-(3-methylbut-2-en-1-yl)isoguanine and a new cleistanthane-type diterpenoid glucoside, together with eight known compounds were isolated from the whole plant of Phyllanthus reticulatus. The structures were elucidated by chemical and spectroscopic methods.

USES IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

i. The fruit is astringent and useful against aggravations and inflammations due to vāta doṣa and diseases of the blood. The bark is alterative (capable of making beneficial changes in the body’s vital functions) and attenuant (thinning fatty tissue). The dosage is about four ounces or more, twice daily in the form of a decoction.

ii. The leaves are employed as a diuretic and cooling medicine in the Sind, where the plant grows profusely along the banks of the Indus.

iii. In the Konkan region, the leaf’s juice is made into a pill with camphor and cubeb (dried berries of Piper cuba) to dissolve in the mouth as a remedy for spongy and bleeding gums.

iv. In the Lakhimpur area of Bengal, the juice from the leaves is used against diarrhoea in infants. It is also reduced into a thin extract along with the juice of other alterative medicinal plants and made into a pill with aromatics. The pill is then given twice a day followed by a cup of milk in order to lessen heated blood.

v. A decoction from the bark (1 in 20) in doses of 1 to 2 fluid ounces or infusion of leaves (1 in 10) in doses of 1 to 2 fluid ounces is given as an astringent, diuretic and alterative drug.

vi. In Ashanti in Africa, the leaves are mixed with nuts from a local palm tree (Elaeis guinensis) and made into a broth and then given to women who have just delivered to relieve them from pain.

vii. On the Gold Coast, the juice from the stems is blown into the eyes to cure soreness.

viii. East Africans employ the powdered leaf as a local application for sores, burns and pus-filled wounds as well as for any chafing of the skin.

                                                           REFERENCE

Krishnamurthy, K. H. 2014. Bhūmī āmalakī, Phyllanthus. NAMAH Journal Medicinal Plants THE JOURNAL OF INTEGRAL HEALTH  Volume 22 Issue 3 15th October 2014 https://www.namahjournal.com/doc/Actual/Phyllanthus-vol-19-iss-3.html

Bibliography

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2. K.R. Kirtikar and B.D. Basu. Indian Medicinal Plants, Vol II. Dehradun; International Book Distribution, 1988.

3. Naveen Patnaik. The Garden of Life. New Delhi; Harper Collins Publishers, 1993.

4. N.K. Shanmugam. Mooligai Kalai Kalanjium. Chennai; Kalaiselvi Publications, 1997.

5. P.K. Warrier, V.P. Nambiar, C. Raman-kutty. Indian Medicinal Plants. Chennai; Orient Longman Limited, 1996.

6. The Wealth of India. New Delhi; Publications and Information Directorate, CSIR, 1976, [Vol.X]: 171-7.

7. The Useful Plants of India. New Delhi; Publications and Informations Directorate, CSIR, 1986.

8. Bhandari, Chandraraj. Vanauṣadhī Cand-rodaya. Varanasi; Chaukhambha Sanskrit series, 1970.

9. Schmelzer Gabriëlla Harriët, Gurib-Fakim Ameenah. Plant Resources of Tropical Africa 11(1),Medicinal plants 1. Wageringer, Neths; Prota Foundation, Backhuys Publishers, 2008.

Dr. K.H. Krishnamurthy wrote about medicinal plants as used in the Indian context with deep interest.

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