<i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achyranthes_aspera" class="extiw" title="w:Achyranthes aspera">Achyranthes aspera</a></i> (Prickly chaff flower, Devil's horsewhip) is a species of plant in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaranthaceae" class="extiw" title="w:Amaranthaceae">Amaranthaceae</a> family. It is distributed throughout the tropical world. It can be found in many places growing as an introduced species and a common weed. It is an invasive species in some areas, including many <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacific_Islands" class="extiw" title="w:Pacific Islands">Pacific Islands</a> environments.
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Prickly Chaff-flower is an erect or prostrate, annual or perennial herb, often with a woody base, which grows as wasteland herb every where. Since time immemorial, it is in use as folk medicine. It holds a reputed position as medicinal herb in different systems of medicine in India. Stems 0.4-2 m, pilose or puberulent. Leaf blades elliptic, ovate, or broadly ovate to orbiculate, obovate-orbiculate, or broadly rhombate, 1-20 × 2-6 cm, adpressed-pubescent abaxially and adaxially. Inflorescences to 30 cm; bracts membranous; bracteoles long-aristate, spinose; wings attached at sides and base. Flowers: tepals 4 or 5, length 3-7 mm; pseudostaminodes with margins fimbriate at apex, often with dorsal scale.
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Medicinal uses: Different parts of the plant are ingredients in many native prescriptions in combination with more active remedies. In Western India the juice is applied to relieve toothache. The ashes with honey are given to relieve cough; the root in dosed of one tola is given at bedtime for night blindness, and rubbed into a paste with water it is used as an anjan (eye salve) in opacities of the cornea. The seeds are often used as a famine food in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India" class="extiw" title="w:India">India</a>, especially in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajputana" class="extiw" title="w:Rajputana">Rajputana</a>, where the plant is called Bharotha (grass). In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uttar_Pradesh" class="extiw" title="w:Uttar Pradesh">Uttar Pradesh</a> the plant is used for a great many medicinal purposes, especially in obstetrics and gynecology, including abortion, induction of labor, and cessation of postpartum bleeding. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maasai_people" class="extiw" title="w:Maasai people">Maasai people</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenya" class="extiw" title="w:Kenya">Kenya</a> use the plant medicinally to ease the symptoms of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/malaria" class="extiw" title="w:malaria">malaria</a>.
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<a href="//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Jkadavoor" title="User:Jkadavoor">Jeevan Jose, Kerala, India</a></div>
CC BY-SA 4.0
<span class="int-own-work" lang="en">Own work</span>