Botany
Makahiya is a diffusely spreading, half-woody herb, with branched stems up to 1 meter long, sparingly prickly with numerous deflexed, bristly hairs. The leaves are very sensitive, both pinnae and leaflets, folding when touched. Pinnae are usually 4, digitately arranged at the end of each petiole, and 4 to 9 centimeters long. The leaflets are narrowly oblong, inequilateral, 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, sessile, sparingly bristly, with pointed tips. Heads are long-peduncled, solitary or 2 to 3 in each axil, about 1 centimeter in diameter. Pods are flat, slightly recurved, 1 to 2 centimeters long, with 3 to 5 one-sided joints that fall away on maturity. Florets are red in the upper part with pink to lavender filaments.

Distribution
- Common weed widely distributed in the Philippines in open, moist, waste places, open grasslands and open thickets, at low and medium altitudes in settled areas.
- Introduced from tropical America.
- Pantropic weed.

Constituents
- Seed contains a toxic alkaloid, mimosine, a non-protein alpha-amino acid, known to cause hair loss and depressed growth in mammals (an unlikely event in humans as this will require unusually large doses).
- Roots yield flavonoids, phytosterol, alkaloids, amino acids, tannins, glycoside, fatty acids.
- Leaf extract have yielded an adrenaline-like substance.
- Seeds contain a mucilage composed of d-xylose and d-glucoronic acid, yielding 17% greenish yellow fatty oil.
- Plant contains (1) tubulin with an ability to bind colchicene with its sulfhydryl groups. (2) crocetin dimethyl ester.

Properties
- Considered expectorant, antiasthmatic. analgesic, antispasmodic, alterant, sedative and antidepressant.
- Roots are bitter, astringent, acrid, alexipharmic, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac, constipating, cooling, diuretic, emetic, febrifuge, resolvent, vulnerary.
- Leaves are bitter, sudorific, tonic.

Leaflet movement physiology
• The leaflets fold together in the early evening and reopens at sunrise. It is called bashful or sensitive because the leaflets fold together on touching, warming and shaking. The phenomenon is called seismonastic movement due to a rapid change in turgor pressure and changes in membrane permeability in the pulvini cells in the leaf regions with rapid movement of calcium ions. At night, the leaves also fold and bend, termed nyctonastic movements (reaction to absence of light).
• Seismonastic Movement / Actin Cystoskeleton: Study showed fragmentation of actin filaments occurring during bending was invovled in the regulation of movement. The effect of phosphatase inhibitors on the actin cytoskeleton affects dynamic reorganization of actin filaments and causes the seismonastic movement.

Parts utilized
Entire plant.

Uses
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, rots is used as diuretic, and is used in dysentery and dysmenorrhea.
- Entire plant in decoction used as alterant and antiasthmatic.
- Root considered aphrodisiac, and used for bladder gravel and similar urinary complaints.
- Decoction or infusion of leaves used in asthma; expectorant.
- Used for hypertension, menorrhagia, glandular swelling, sore throat and hoarseness.
- Powdered seeds applied to wounds and sores.
- Bruised leaves applied to bruises.
- Decoction of leaves used for diabetes.
- Powdered roots and leaves taken with milk for piles and fistula.
- Juice applied externally to fistulous sores.
- Poultice of leaves for glandular swellings.
- Used as antifertility agent in some parts of India.
- 1:1 ethanol water extract used for pain relief.
- Seeds used a coffee substitute
- In China, used for treatment of anxiety and depression.
- In Ayurveda, used as antiasthmatic, aphrodisiac, analgesic and antidepressant.
- In India, used for birth control.
- In the Antiles, Guiana, and La Reunion, roots used vomitive.
- In Indo-China, seeds used as emetic.
- In Mexico, used to alleviate depression.
- In Punjab and Cashmere, seeds used for sore throat.
- In Concan, paste of leaves applied to hydrocoeles and glandular swellings.
- Infusion of leaves used for dysentery; also as bitter tonic.
- Roots used for leucoderma, vaginopathy, metropathy, ulcers, dysentery, inflammations, jaundice, asthma, small pox, strangury, fevers.
- Leaves used for hydrocoele, hemorrhoids, fistula, scrofula, conjunctivitis, wounds and hemorrhages.
- Whole plants used for bladder calculi; externally, for edema, rheumatism, myalgia and uterine tumors.
- Whole plant, crushed, used for itching and scabies.

Studies
• Antimicrobial: Study showed antimicrobial activity against Aspergillus fumigatus, Citrobacter divergens and Klebsiella pneumonia.
• Anticonvulsant: Study showed intraperitoneal use of Mimosa pudica decoction protected mice against pentylentetrazol and strychnine-induced seizures.
• Plant extracts showed the plant to be a moderate diuretic, depresses duodenal contractions (similar to atrophine), promotes nerve regeneration and reduce menorrhagia.
• Also shown to have antidepressant activity.
• Wound Healing: Study of the methanolic extract exhibited good wound healing activity, an effect attributable to phenol constituents.
• Strong emetic effect of extracts attributed to mimosine.
• Antifertility Studies: Studies on the root extract of M. pudica showed antifertility effect with prolongation of the estrous cycle and disturbance of the secretion of gonadotropin hormones in albino mice.
• Antitoxin / Antivenom Studies: (1) A study in India screened several herbal plants for antivenin activity against common sea snake venom Enhydrina schistosa, the most toxic among the common sea snakes. The investigation showed antivenom activiety in the alcoholic extract of Mimosa pudica, Mucuna pruriens, and Andrographis paniculata. (2) Study on the aqueous extract of dried roots of Mimosa pudica showed significant inhibitory effect on Naja naja and Bangarus caerulus venoms. (3) Of 17 plants screened, only M pudica showed 100% ability in neuralizing venom lethality. Study showed the potential use of M pudica as an antivenom agent of plant origin against five poisonous snake venoms found in Malaysia.
• Two new C-glycosylflavones from Mimosa pudica: Two new C-glycosylflavones were isolated from the whole plant of Mimosa pudica, and their structures were determined as 6,7,3?,4?-tetrahydroxyl-8-C-[?-l-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 ? 2)]-?-d-glucopyranosyl flavone (1), 5,7,3?,4?-tetrahydroxy-8-C[?-d-apiose-(1 ? 4)]-?-d-glycopyranosyl flavone (2).
• Chromoblastomycosis: Study isolated Fonsecaea from the thorns of M pudica and suggests it could be a natural source of infection for the fungus Fonsecaea pedrosoi.
• Seed Mucilage / Sustained-Release Excipient: Study showed the dissolution profile from formulation containing mucilage to drug in the proportion of 1:40 was found to be similar to the commercial sustained-release formulation of diclofenac.
• Anti-Depressant: Study suggests that M pudica produces antidepressant effect in rats with a profile similar to two tricyclic antidepressants.
• Anti-Malarial: Mimosine found to be an iron chelator acting on malarial bugs by preventing the replication of cells.
• Apoptotic: Mimosine also causes apoptosis and studied for treating ovarian cancer and other highly vascularized tumors.
• Anthelmintic: The Anthelmintic effect of Makahiya (Mimosa pudica) leaves Extract in Native Chicken (Gallus domesticus) naturally infected with Gastro-intestinal Parasites (Thesis)
• Anti-Hepatotoxic / Antioxidant: Study showed the co-administration of Mimosa pudica aqueous extract significantly lowered the level of lipid peroxidation in alcohol-fed mice.
• Anti-Hyperglycemic: Mimosa pudica is one of eight medicinal plants in an Ayuvedic herbal formulation, Ilogen-Excel, showing antihyperglycemic effect in STZ-induced diabetic rats.
• Nerve-Regenerative: (1) Study showed Mimosa pudica extract possess nerve-regenerative potential in rats with sciatic nerve injury. (2) In rats with experimentally injured sciatic nerves, nerve regeneration was 30-40% higher in rats treated with M. pudica extract than the hydrocortisone treated group.
• Antidiabetic Activity: In a study of alloxan-induced diabetic rats, the ethanolic extract of Mimos pudica showed significant decrease of blood glucose level compared with Metformin as standard drug.
• Antioxidant / Antibacterial: Comparative antioxidant, antibacterial and general toxicity studies on extracts of two Bangladeshi medicinal plants, M pudica and M rubicau, showed both exhibited prominent antioxidant property. While M. rubicaulis did not show any antibacterial activity, M pudica displayed considerable bacteriostatic activity against all six bacterial strains tested - B cereus, B subtilis, E coli, ampicillin-resistant E coli, S aureus and P aeruginosa.
• Antinociceptive / Toxicity Studies: In an acute toxicity study, a single dose of aqueous extract of 2000 mg KBW showed no clinical signs of toxicity or mortality. Study also showed dose-dependent central and peripheral analgesic property.
• Hypolipidemic: Chloroform extract exhibited significant hypolipidemic activity. Results suggest that biologically activity phytoconstituents such as flavonoids, glycosides alkoloids may be responsible for the activity.
• Tannins / Antivenom: Study showed tannins obtained from M. pudica was better than tannic acid in neutralizing the lethality of N. kaouthia venom in vitro. Results suggest M. pudica has a potential for treating N. Kaouthia snakebites.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Tinctures. seeds, extracts in the cybermarket.