Scientific Name Chenopodium album Linn.
Family Chenopodiaceae
Used Part Seeds.
Distribution Area An erect herb, up to 3.5 m in height, found wild up to an altitude of 4,700 m, and cultivated throughout India.
Common Uses . The plant is sweet, acrid,oleaginous, digestive, carminative, laxative, anthelmintic, diuretic, aphrodisiac and tonic, and is useful in vititated conditions of pitta, peptic ulcers, helminthisasis, dyspepesia, flatulence,strangury, seminal weakness, pharyngopathy, splenopathy, haemorrhoids, ophthalmopathy, cardiac disorder and general debility.
The plant improves the apetite oleaginous,anthelmintic, laxative, diuretic, aphrodisiac, tonic,useful in biliousness, "vata" and "kapha", abdominal pains, eye diseases, throat troubles, piles, diseases of the blood, the heart, the spleen( Ayurveda). The plant
The herb is laxative, anthelmintic and cardiotonic. The leaves are anti-scorbutic; they yield ascaridole, which can be used to treat round- and hookworms. The juice is used for treating burns. The powdered plant (25-50%), when mixed with normal food, was reported to suppress oestrus cycle; alcoholic extract of leaf, however, did not exhibit any activity. A fine powder of the leaves is dusted to allay irritation. A decoction of the aerial parts, mixed with alcohol, is rubbed on the body affected by arthritis and rheumatism.The zulus use an infusion as an enema for intestinal ulceration. The finely powdered leaves are used as a dusting powder about the external genitalia in children.
