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Family • Caparidaceae
Silisian
Polanisia icosandra Linn.
TICKWEED
Duo rui bai hua cai

Other scientific names Common names   
Cleome icosandra Linn.  Apoi-apoian (Tag.) Tantandok (Ilk.)
Polanisia viscosa DC. Balabalanoian (Tag.) Tulayag (P. Bis.)
Cleome viscosa Linn. Hulaya (P. Bis.) Asian spider flower (Engl.)
Cleome acutifolia Elm. Kabau (Iv.) Jazmin De Rio Cleome Viscosa
  Lampotaki (Tagb.) Tickweed (Engl.)
  Silisian (Tag.) Wild mustard (Engl.)
  Silisilihan (Tag.) Duo rui bai hua cai (Chin.)
Silisilihan is a shared common for: (1) Silisian, Polanisia icosandra (2) Ditiran, sili-silihan, Deeringia amaranthoides.

Botany
Silisian is an erect, branched, annual, glandular, hairy and slightly rank-smelling herb, growing to a height of 0.3 to 1 meter. Leaf has 3 to 5 leaflets, oblong to oblong-ovate, 1 to 3 centimeters long. Flowers are in leafy, terminal racemes with 1 centimeter pedicels. Petals are yellow, narrowly obovate, 7 to 8 millimeters long. Capsule is cylindric, 4 to 7 centimeters long, 3 to 4 millimeters in diameter, striate, glandular-hairy, and narrowed above.

Distribution
- In settled areas, at low and medium altitudes as a common weed.
- Pantropic.

Constituents
- Plant yields a powerful and volatile principle, with a smell similar to mustard, considered antiseptic and antispasmodic.
- The seed contains a volatile oil, acting as vermifuge.
Seed yields 26% oil with a fatty acid profile of: palmitic 10.6%, stearic 4.9%, oleic 14.4% and linoleic 68.6%. source

Properties
Antiseptic, stimulant, vermifuge, astringent and spasmodic.
Roots are antiscorbutic.

Parts utilized
Leaves, roots and seeds.

Uses
Edible
Leaves and seeds.
Leaves and young shoots cooked as vegetable.
Leaves eaten in salad, fermented in Mindanao and the Visayas.
Pungent seeds can be pickled or used as mustard substitute in curries.
Juice of plant used as condiment.
Seeds yield an oil that can be used for cooking.
- In Africa, used as vermifuge.
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, roots, leaves and seeds used as substitute for mustard cures in which a revulsive is needed.
- Powdered roots, leaves and seeds, mixed with sugar, as antihelminthic.
- Infusion of seeds, roots and leaves used as maggot cleanser for unhealing ulcers.
- Bruised plant used as counter-irritant for blisters.
- Juice of leaves used for earaches.
- Leaf poultice used for headaches and deafness.
- Seed decoction used for abdominal complaints.
- In India, mixed with oil, used for purulent ear discharges.
- In Australia, aborigines use the leaves for headaches.
- Leaves applied to boil to prevent formation of pus.
- In Indo-China, roots used as stimulant and anti-scorbutic.
- In the U.S., roots used as vermifuge.
- In Ceylon roots and seeds used as cardiac stimulant.
- Seeds used as carminative, anthelmintic, and rubefacient.
- Seeds used for fevers and diarrhea; also as remedy for infantile convulsions.
- In Guam, seeds used in decoction for abdminal complaints; in poultice form, as rubefacient.
- In Grenada, decoction of leaves used to treat colds and fevers.
- In Ayurveda, used as stomachic, laxative, diuretic, anthelmintic, and for skin diseases, itching, ulcers, leprosy, and malarial fevers.

Studies
• Seed oil: Composition and Characteristics of Cleome icosandra L. Seed Oil: Study showed seeds yield 26% oil with a high amount of unsaturated acids- oleic and linoleic acid which polymerises during storage, suggesting exploitation of the oil for industrial use.
• Anti-larvicidal: Acetone extracts of A conyzoides, Cleome icosandra, T erectes, and T procumbens showed growth inhibitory and juvenile hormone mimicking activity to treated larvae of C. quinquefasciatus.
• Cembrane Acids: Study yielded two new unsaturated cembrane acids from Cleome viscosa.
• Analgesic / Anesthetic: Study of aqueous extract of seeds of C viscosa showed it to be non-toxic with significant analgesic activity in mice and local anesthetic activity in guinea-pigs.
• Antibacterial: Study showed at concentration of 50% and 75%, gatas-gatas and silisian exhibit intermediate inhibitory effect against Shigella dysenteriae.
• Anhelmintic: Study of crude alcohol and aqueous extracts of seeds of C. viscosa against Phretima posthuma and Ascardia galli showed significant dose-dependent anthelmintic activity.
• Antioxidant: Study of selected Unani plant extracts, seven, including C. icosandra, showed moderate antioxidant activity. Three, including C. icosandra, showed potentially significant oxidative damage preventive activity and radical scavenging activity.

Availability
Wild-crafted. 

Last Update July 2011
Photo © Godofredo Stuart / StuartXchange
OTHER IMAGE SOURCE / Flower / Archivo:Cleome viscosa 15082006 Mali 2.jpg / H Brisse / 26 July 2007/ Licencia de Documentacion Libre GNU / Wikimedia Commons

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Composition and Characteristics of Cleome icosandra L. Seed Oil / 10.1002/lipi.19770790208 / Fette, Seifen, Anstrichmittel • Vol 79 Issue 2, Pages 91 - 92
(2)
Unsaturated Cembrane Acids From Cleome viscosa L. (Capparidaceae) / S Kosela et al / Australian Journal of Chemistry 38(9) 1365 - 1370 • doi:10.1071/CH9851365 /
(3)
Pharmacological investigations of sticky viscome extract (Cleome viscosa L.) in rats, mice and guinea-pigs / P D Singh and M E West / Phytotherapy Research • Volume 5 Issue 2, Pages 82 - 84 / DOI 10.1002/ptr.2650050209 /
(4)
Cleome viscosa - L. / Tickweed / Plants For A Future
(5)
Evaluation of indigenous plant extracts against larvae of Culex quinquefasciatus Say (Diptera: Culicidae) / Abdul Rahuman et al / Parasitology Research /
(6)
Cleome viscosa / ZipcodeZoo
(7)
Assay on the anti-bacterial effectiveness of the leaf decoctions of gatas-gatas (Euphorbia hista Linn.), makabuhay (Tinospora trumphii Boerl.) and silisian (Polanisia icosandra Linn.) against Shigella dysenteriae / Lasam L L /
(8)
A Review of Anthelmintic Plants / Ravindra Mali and Anita Mehta /
(9)
Oxidative DNA damage preventive activity and antioxidant potential of plants used in Unani system of medicine / BMC complementary and alternative medicine / BioPorflio
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