Tridax daisy is also commonly known as coat buttons. It is called Jayanti veda, Ekapushpi, Vranaropani in Sanskrit, ghamra in Hindi, Kambarmodi in Marathi, Gaddi Chemanthi in Telugu,Thata poodu in Tamil. In Oriya we call it Bishalya karani.
This weed can be found in fields, meadows, roadsides in areas with tropical or semi-tropical climates. The plant bears daisy-like yellow-centered white or yellow flowers with three-toothed ray florets. It’s a spreading annual herb which can grow up to 20 cm in height. The leaves are serrate or dentate, acute, fleshy, toothed and generally arrowhead-shaped. Flower is in the head, long stalked and whitish. Its seeds are numerous, small with tuft of silky hairs on one side for wind dispersal. The fruit is a hard achene with brush-like hair all over it and at the bottom it holds a feathery, plume like white pappus.
This weed or rather say herb is known for several potential , powerful and effective therapeutic activities like antiviral, antibiotic efficacies, wound healing activity, insecticidal and anti-inflammatory activity, healing ulcers, anal fistula, and haemorrhoidsThe leaf juice has antiseptic, insecticidal and parasiticidal properties. . In tribal areas in India the leaf juice is used to cure fresh wounds, to stop bleeding.
In some countries (in USA) it has been listed as a noxious weed and a pest. But in India we know it as an invaluable herb having numerous ayurvedic properties. The name itself is suggestive of that medicinal property. In Indian mythology the Ramayana we have read that when Laxman swooned with Indrajit’s warhead (known as Shaktibheda), as per advice of Sushena ,the greatest physician of Lanka, Hanuman went flying to the mountain Gandhamardan to fetch bisalyakarani. The juice of that herb cured Laxman . And from early childhood we have been taught and know that the juice of its leaves when applied to a fresh wound stops bleeding and heals the wound very quickly. In Cuttack, the biggest commercial city having 1000 year old rich culture and history in Orissa; there is a lane called Bisalyakarani Lane where an ayurvedic product of the same name bishalyakarani is produced.
Tidax daisy bud
The matured fruit of tridax daisy ready to disperse in wind
