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| Wild spikenard , Bush mint, The Chan plant, Picture released into the public domain by author Madhavi Madhurakavi. |
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| Hyptis suaveolens - Vilayati tulsi - Picture released into the public domain by author Madhavi Madhurakavi |
Also Known As
Vilayati tulsi,Jungli Tulsi in Hindi
Ganga tulasi or Gandha thulasi
Konda thulasi , Adavi Tulasi in Telugu.
Bhustrena in Sanskrit
American mint,Bush mint,The Chan plant in English.
This is a very common plant found in India and some parts of Asia and Latin America.They bear purplish small n pretty flowers.
The leaves resemble Tulsi leaves but are much bigger and when crushed they give a distinct smell-hence the names.
A drink is made from the soaked seeds of the plant .
This plant has many medicinal properties.
It is also an insecticidal plant so the dried and powdered plant is used to keep off some insects.It is also known to have some larvicidal properties which can reduce the population of the infamous mosquito Aedes agypti to a certain extent.
The leaves decoction is used to wash the skin with boils and eczema.
The crushed leaves are applied on the forehead to treat headaches .
The next post will describe the medicinal uses of the oil of this plant.
This plant is known as Whitney, at least by the Murrumburrah people of Kakadu. They don’t have a written language so I have spelt it phonetically not being a linguist.
ReplyDeleteMy father knew of this herb to be a blood coagulant and I witnessed him using it when I was around 6 years of age (1965). He used it to stop the massive bleeding from a head wound of a man who fell on rocks at the base of Manton Dam. As the patient was carried up to carpark all attempts to stop the bleeding with a towel failed. Dad, walking behind the group, gathered Whitney as he went. Chewing up the leaves to make a moist wad which he eventually got to place on the patients wound up at the carpark. As I recall, the bleeding was arrested in a matter of seconds.
In 2014 a worker at our bush camp clean-sliced the top of a finger. A shallow slice, oval in shape with the maximum diameter of around 10mm. No skin left to knit. I arrived about 2 hours after the incident. He showed that whenever he removed the binding from his finger it would start to ‘spurt’ again. I walked around 20 meters to find some Whitney, chewed it, applied it and the bleeding stopped in around 3 seconds. I advised him to cover it again and to avoid manipulating it, though it was proven that the bleeding was not to be restarted by gentle manipulation of the cut area.
My father is of Indonesian decent though I don’t know if he brought the knowledge with him at the age of around 10 years old when he arrived in Australia or whether he learnt it from the First Australians or Asian immigrants in cosmopolitan Darwin. Several First Australians I know were not familiar with the herb being blood coagulant, though did have a non-medicinal use for the plant.
Trevor Wie - Ass Dip Environmental Biology
wow !!!
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