MEDICINAL PLANT

PLANT REVIEW OF HELIOTROPIUM INDICUM:

Family Profile (Boraginaceae)

Members of the family Boraginaceae are herbs, shrubs or trees characterized by leaves with rough hairs, inflorescences sometimes coiled at their tips, and fruit a capsule or drupe (fleshy) of four 1-seeded nutlets.

Boraginaceae is a family displaying a range of differences in habit, leaf, inflorescence, flower and fruit morphology.

The species are mainly herbs, but shrubs or trees, usually multi-stemmed, also occur. Their life cycles may be annual, multiseasonal or perennial.

The stems of the herbaceous species are erect, procumbent (lying on the ground without rooting at the nodes) or decumbent (spreading horizontally at first but then growing upwards).

The plants are variously hairy. Setae (stiff hairs) with 1- or 2- or 3-layered, multicellular bases, unbranched or branched hairs and unbranched multicellular glandular hairs occur.

The leaves are simple, with or without a leaf stalk. The inflorescences are often coiled at the apex, uncoiling as the flowers open.

The corolla is sympetalous (having petals which are partly fused); the throat may be naked, hairy, with pouch-like swellings (gibbosities) or has fornices (small scales) present.

The color of the corolla varies from white, yellow, shades of blue and purple to brownish red or pink. The stamens are exserted or included, borne on the corolla.

The fruit is a capsule or drupes of four 1-seeded nutlets, the nutlets are glabrous or variously ornamented.

Distribution and habitat

The family Boraginaceae comprises about 135 genera and 2600 species, distributed throughout the tropical, subtropical, and temperate regions of the world. A broad family concept is followed here, regarding the families Hydrophyllaceae and Lennoaceae as synonyms of Boraginaceae.

Boraginaceae is only a medium-sized family (21 genera and 110 species) in the Flora of southern Africa (FSA) compared to the largest family Asteraceae (246 genera and 2 240 species), the members are widespread over the area.

The members of Boraginaceae occur in the Desert, Forest, Fynbos, Grassland, Nama-Karoo, Savanna, Succulent Karoo and Thicket Biomes of the FSA region. They are therefore found in a variety of habitats, often inhabiting disturbed places like road verges and are thus easily collected and recorded.

Different types of plant distribution patterns are found among members of the family Boraginaceae in southern Africa. Cordia, the largest genus in the family with an estimated 350 species is pantropical with about eight species occurring in southern Africa.

Besides Lobostemon and Echiostachys, which is more or less endemic in the Western Cape (winter rainfall), all other genera occur either elsewhere in Africa or in the world.

The genera Anchusa, Cynoglossum, Lappula, Lithospermum and Myosotis have indigenous members described from southern Africa with their nearest relatives in Europe and Asia.

General feature of plant:

Heliotropium indicum (Linn.)

Synonyms:

1.    Eliopia riparia

2.    Eliopia serrata

3.    Heliophytum indicum

4.    Heliotropium foetidum

5.    Heliotropium cordifolium

6.    Heliotropium horminifolium

7.    Heliotropium

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Plantae

      Subkingdom: Tracheobionta

             Super division: Spermatophyta

                     Division: Magnoliophyta

                            Class: Magnoliopsida

                                 Subclass: Asteridae

                                         Order: Lamiales

                                               Family: Boraginaceae

                                                    Genus: Heliotropium

                                                         Species: Heliotropium indicum

Vernacular name:

1. Bengali: Hatishur (Dhaka); Etusure (Chakma); Si Mar Hong, Paaida (Marma).

2. English name: Heliotrope.

3. Hindi: Siriyari, Hattasura.

4. Malayalam: Tekkida, Telkada.

5. Indonesia: Buntut tikus, bandotan lombok, ekor anjing.

Fig : Different parts of Heliotropium indicum.

Botany:

1. An annual, erect, branched hirsute plant, 15 to 50 cm high.

2. Leaves: opposite or alternate, ovate to oblong-ovate, somewhat hairy, acute or acuminate, base decurrent along the petiole, 3 to 8 cm long.

3. Flowers: calyx green, 3.5 mm in diameter. Stamens 5, inserted on the corolla tube, included. Ovary completely or imperfectly 4-celled, 4 ovules, style terminal or leaf opposed, 3 to 10 cm long, flowers all in one side, the lower ones opening first.

4. Fruits: dry 2- to 4-lobed of 2 or 4 nearly free, more or less united nutlets, 4 to 5 mm long.

Distribution:

Heliotropium indicum has a pantropical distribution, but is probably native of tropical America, south Asia. It is also widespread and common throughout Africa. In Bangladesh Heliotropium indicum distributed in all over the fallow lands.

Chromosome number:

2n = 22, 24

Plant part used:

Whole plant, leaves, seeds, roots.

Growth and development:

Heliotropium indicum may flower throughout the year. The flowering season is very long and new flowers develop apically within the cyme while mature nutlets are already present at the base of the inflorescence.

Ecology:

Heliotropium indicum is found in sunny localities, on waste land, in periodically desiccating pools and ditches and anthropogenic habitats, generally below 800 m altitude. It is widely considered a weed of fields and pastures.

Other botanical information:

Heliotropium comprises about 250 species and is distributed in tropical, subtropical and warm temperate zones of all continents.

The classification suffers from the absence of a recent taxonomic revision covering Old World and the New World species. Heliotropium is of special interest in eastern and  northern East Africa as it is associated with the initial swarming areas of migratory locusts (Locusta migratoria). Likewise butterflies are often associated with Heliotropium as they require certain pyrrolizidine alkaloids as precursor for their pheromones.

Heliotropium amplexicaule Vahl is native to South America, but is now found throughout the tropics. In pastures it can cause fatal poisoning in cattle. In Mauritius, where it is locally a weed in sugarcane, a decoction of the plant is drunk to cure cough and fever. Heliotropium curassavicum L. is another native of the New World which has been introduced in the Old World tropics. It is less widespread in tropical Africa than Heliotropium indicum and no medicinal uses have been reported from Africa. In the Americas, however, uses similar to those of Heliotropium indicum are recorded.

In Madagascar, Heliotropium curassavicum is burnt in the fields, as it provides good ash. Its English names, ‘alkali heath’, ‘salt heliotrope’ and ‘seaside heliotrope’, and its French name, ‘verveine bord-de-mer’, refer to its preferred habitat: saline lake- and seashores.

Economical uses:

ü  Heliotropium indicum, a widely used indigenous plant in Ayurvedic medicine. The whole plant is used as a medicine.

ü  The leaves are useful in fever, urticaria, ulcers, wounds, localized inflammation, gonorrhoea, ringworm, rheumatism and erysipelas (Srinivas et al., 2000 and Reddy et al., 2002).

ü  The major constituents of the extract of Heliotropium indicum are tannins and alkaloids (Singh et al., 2003). Indicine-N-oxide derived from Heliotropium indicum has been found to have an antitumor activity and has been used in clinical trials as a chemotherapeutic agent for leukemia and solid tumors (Rao and Mcbride, 1968). Extracts of Heliotropium indicum showed significant activity in several experimental tumor systems (Kugelman et al., 1976).

Ethno botanical information:

ü  Crushed leaves are warmed and applied to swelling.

ü  Two drops of leaf juice is applied to eyes for conjunctivitis. (American-Eurasian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 3(4): 881-888, 2009 ISSN 1995-0748).