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Family • Gramineae
Damung-balang
Dactyloctenium aegyptium (Linn.) Richt.
EGYPTIAN GRASS
Long zhao mao

Scientific names Common names
Chloris mucronataMichx.. Alam (Tag.)
Cynosurus aegyptium Linn. Damung-balang (Tag.)
Dactyloctenium aegyptium (Linn.) Richt. Krus-krusan (Tag.)
Dactyloctenium aegyptiacum Willd. Beach wiregrass (Engl.)
Dactyloctenium mucronatum Willd. var. aegypticum Nees Coast finger grass (Engl.)
Eleusine aegyptiaca Desf. Crowfoot grass (Engl.)
Eleusine mucronata Llanos Egyptian grass (Engl.)
Long zhao mao (Chin.)  
   

Other vernacular names
FRENCH: Chiendent, Pattes de poule, Pied poule.
SPANISH: Estrella del mar, Paja de palma, Pata de gallina falsa, Tres dedos, Yerba de egipto
TAMIL: Ka-kka-kalpul.

Botany
Damung-balang is a rather coarse grass, variable in habit, 15 to 60 centimeters high, the basal parts decumbent, usually more or less creeping and rooting, the flowering stems erect or ascending. Leaves are narrowly linear, 5 to 18 centimeters long, 2 to 6 millimeters wide, with the sheaths loose, and imbricate. Spikes number 3 or 4, rarely only 2, digitately radiating from the top of the peduncle, 1 to 5 centimeters long, 5 to 7 millimeters thick. Spikelets are numerous, and densely crowded, spreading, and about 3 millimeters long, 3- to 4-flowered, the first glume ovate and acute, the second, obliquely awned. Flowering glumes are cuspidate-awned, the cusps recurved.

Distribution
- A common weed throughout the Philippines in settled areas at low and medium altitudes.
- Pantropic in distribution.

Constituents
- Ash (6.9%) is rich in lime (20.67%) with SiO (24.17%) and chlorine (6.76%).

Properties
 • Astringent, anthelmintic, tonic.

Parts used
Whole plant, seeds.

Uses
Edibility
- A famine food in Africa
- Seeds used for making chapaties or haluwa and eaten as a cooling agent .
Folkloric
- Decoction of plant, in fresh or in dry state, used internally for dysentery and acute hemoptysis.
- In Africa, decoction of seeds used to relieve pains in the region of the kidney; stems and leaves applied externally for treatment of ulcers.
- In traditional Thai medicine, use for diuretic, anti-inflammatory and anti-pyretic effects.
- In India, juice of fresh plant used for fevers. Used externally for wounds and ulcers.
Others
- Fodder.



Studies
• Apoptotic Induction Activity: Study of grass extracts of D. aegyptium and Eleusine indica showed selective inhibitory growth inhibition effect on human lung cancer and cervical cancer (HeLa) cells. The activity was probably mediated through induction of apoptosis.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Last Update Febraury 2013
IMAGE SOURCE: Line Drawing / Dactyloctenium aegyptium / USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database / Britton, N.L., and A. Brown. 1913. An illustrated flora of the northern United States, Canada and the British Possessions. Vol. 1: 229. / USDA Plants Database
OTHER IMAGE SOURCE: Photo / Dactyloctenium aegyptium / Egyptian graws / Steve Hurst @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database/ . / USDA
OTHER IMAGE SOURCE: / Flower close-up / Dactyloctenium aegypticum -- Dinesh Valke / Creative Commons Non-Commercial Share Alike / flickr / Click on graphic to see original image

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Apoptotic induction activity of Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) P.B. and Eleusine indica (L.) Gaerth. extracts on human lung and cervical cancer cell lines / Pintusorn Hansakul, Chatri Ngamkitidechakul et al / Songklanakarin J. Sci. Technol., 31 (3), 273-279, May - Jun. 2009
(2)
Some Antipyretic Ethno-medicinal Plants of Manipuri community of Barak Valley, Assam, India / Manabendra Dutta Choudhury et al / Ethnobotanical Leaflets 14: 21-28, 2010.
(3)
Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L.) Willd. / Chinese name / Catalogue of Life, China
(4)
Ecological study of wild medicinal plants in a dry tropical peri-urban region of Uttar Pradesh in India / Shilpi Aggarwal, Veena Gupta, Rup Narayan / Int. J. Med. Arom. Plants, Vol2, No 2, pp 246-253, June 2012

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