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Botany
A succulent, branched,
smooth, twining herbaceous vine, several meters in length. Stems are
purplish or green. Leaves are fleshy, ovate or heart-shaped, 5 to 12
cms long, stalked, tapering to a pointed tip with a cordate base. Spikes
are axillary, solitary, 5-29 cm long. Fruit is fleshy, stalkless, ovoid
or spherical, 5-6 mm long, and purple when mature.
Distribution
Found in settled and cultivated
areas, in hedges.
Properties
and constituents
• Demulcent, diuretic, emollient,
laxative, rubefacient.
• Study isolated Basellasaponins A, B, C, and D, oleanane-type triterpenes
oligoglycosides, together with betavulgaroside 1, spinacoside C, and momordins IIb and IIc, from fresh aerial parts.
Uses
Nutritional
Common market product,
a popular leafy and stew vegetable, a good substitute for spinach.
The green and purple cultivated varieties are preferable to the wild
ones.
Both the young shoots and stems are eaten.
Excellent source of calcium and iron; good source of vitamins A, B,
and C, with a high roughage value.
Folkloric
Roots are employed as
rubefacient.
Poultice of leaves used to reduce local swelling.
Sap is applied to acne eruptions to reduce inflammation.
Decoction of leaves used for its mild laxative effects.
Pulped leaves applied to boils and ulcers to hasten suppuration.
Sugared juice of leaves useful for catarrhal afflictions.
Leaf-juice, mixed with butter, is soothing and colling when applied
to burns and scalds.
In Ayurveda, used for
hemorrhages, skin diseases, sexual weakness, ulcers and as laxative
in children and pregnant women.
In Nigeria, use for fertility
enhancement in women.
Studies
• Anthocyanins
/ Natural Food Colorant : Study
of pigment extracted from fruits of spinach vine (B. rubra) showed good
stability with a potential as a natural food color.
• Antifungal: Study yielded two
antifungal peptides with potent antivity against Botrytis cinerea, Mycosphaerella
arachidicola and Fusarium oxysporum.
• Antimicrobial: A study of the aqueous, ethanolic and petroleum ether extracts of the leaves of Basella rubra exhibited antimicrobial activity against all test organisms except P aeruginosa. The ethanolic extract showed maximum effect against E coli. Further studies are needed to isolate the active compound responsible for the antimicrobial effect.
Availability
Cultivated vegetable
market produce.
Wildcrafted.
Seeds in the cybermarket.
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