Botany
Amor-seco is a dense, leafy perennial grass, creeping and branching below, with short
horizontal stems. Flowering stems
are erect, 20 to 60 centimeters high. Leaves are short, linear-lanceolate,
3 to 10 centimeters long, 4 to 6 centimeters wide. Panicles are purplish, open, with few whorled branches, 5 centimeters long, or less, bearing few-flowered spikes. Sessile spikelet is very narrow,
about 3 millimeters long; callus is elongated, barbed; fourth glume is linear,
acuminate, with a short scabrid awn.
Distribution
- Found throughout
the Philippines in open places at low and medium altitudes.
- A troublesome pest of a weed on lawns and golf courses, the seeds adhering to trousers and dresses.
- Also occurs from India to China and southward through Malaya to tropical Australia and Polynesia.
Constituents
- Study suggests substantial amounts of sterols and terpenes in the flowers.
Properties
- Antidiarrheal, diuretic, antidotal, antirheumatic.
Parts
utilized
Entire plant
Uses
Folkloric
· In the Philippines decoction of root is used for diarrhea.
· In Ternate decoction used for those who might have swallowed poison.
· Decoction of entire plant as a diuretic.
· In Indonesia, plant used as poison antidote.
· In Bangladesh, root juice used for liver pain.
· Ashes of burned roots taken internally for rheumatism.
· In ancient Hindu medicine, one of several plants – Curcuma longa, Berberis asiatica,
Ocimum basilicum, Trichosanthes dioica, Azadirachta indica, among others,
ground and mixed in equal proportion and applied over the body as an
ointment for pruritus, skin eruptions, urticaria, and tumescence. Also
mixed with other herbal plants as a purgative, pustulant and anodyne.
Others
· Livestock: In Bangladesh, whole plant used for cattle leg swellings.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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