Cissampelos pareira

Velvetleaf
Cissampelos pareira with bulb and fruits found in Panchkhal, Nepal
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
Order:	Ranunculales
Family:	Menispermaceae
Genus:	Cissampelos
Species:	C. pareira
Binomial name
Cissampelos pareira L.

Fruits of Cissampelos pareira during the month of October

Cissampelos pareira (velvetleaf) is a species of flowering plant in the family Menispermaceae.

Morphology

It is a slender tomentose climber. The leaves are peltate, 2.5–12 cm long, 2.5–11.5 cm broad, triangularly broad-ovate, or orbicular, obtuse, mucronate, base cordate or truncate, ± tomentose on both sides; petiole pubescent. Flowers are small in size, pedicels filiform. Male flowers clustered in the axil of a small leaf; sepals are 4 in number, obovate-oblong, hairy outside; petals 4 in number, united to form a 4-toothed cup, hairy outside; stamens 4, column short, anthers connate, encircling the top of the column. Female flowers clustered in the axils of orbicular, hoary imbricate bracts, on 5–10 cm long racemes; sepal 1, petal 1; carpel 1, densely hairy; style shortly 3-fid. Drupe 4–6 mm long, 3–4 mm broad, subglobose, compressed, hairy-pubescent, red when fresh, black when dry, endocarp transversely ribbed, tuberculate. Seeds are horseshoe-shaped.

Medicinal uses

Leaves

Cissampelos pareira is used in Chinese herbology, where it is called xí shēng téng (Chinese: 锡生藤) or (Chinese: 亞乎奴). The species is also known as abuta and is also called laghu patha in Ayurvedic medicine. In Tamil Nadu it is called ponmusutai and it is used for a number of medicinal purposes. Some attention has been paid to it in Kenya, Tanzania, and other places for its purported antimalarial properties in particular.

See also

• Chinese herbology

External links

• List of Chemicals in Cissampelos pareira (Dr. Duke's Databases)