Eclipta alba

Eclipta alba (L.) Hassk. (syn. Eclipta prostrata L.), commonly known as False Daisy , yerba de tago, and bhringraj, is a plant belonging to the family Asteraceae. Root well developed, cylindrical, greyish. Floral heads 6-8 mm in diameter, solitary, white, achene compressed and narrowly winged. It grows commonly in moist places as a weed all over the world. It is widely distributed throughout India, China, Thailand, and Brazil. In ayurvedic medicine, the leaf extract is considered a powerful liver tonic, rejuvenative, and especially good for the hair. A black dye obtained from Eclipta alba is used for dyeing hair and tattooing. Eclipta alba also has traditional external uses, like athlete foot, eczema and dermatitis, on the scalp to address hair loss and the leaves have been used in the treatment of scorpion stings. It is used as anti-venom against snakebite in China and Brazil (Mors, 1991). It is reported to improve hair growth and colour (Kritikar and Basu 1975 and Chopra et al. 1955)

The herb Eclipta alba contains mainly coumestans i.e. wedelolactone (I) and demethylwedelolactone (II), polypeptides, polyacetylenes, thiophene-derivatives, steroids, triterpenes and flavonoids. Coumestans are known to possess estrogenic activity (Bickoff et al. 1969) Wedelolactone possesses a wide range of biological activities and is used for the treatment of hepatitis and cirrhosis (Wagner et al. 1986), as an antibacterial, anti-hemorrhagic (Kosuge et al. 1985). and for direct inhibition of IKK complex resulting in suppression of LPS-induced caspase-11 expression (Kobori et al. 2004)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipta_alba
See Also: flora, online flowers, flower arrangement