Tadehagi triquetrum (L.) H.Ohashi (= Desmodium triquetrum (L.) DC.)

DeFilipps, Robert A. & Krupnick, Gary A., 2018, The medicinal plants of Myanmar, PhytoKeys 102, pp. 1-341 : 92

Tadehagi triquetrum (L.) H.Ohashi (= Desmodium triquetrum (L.) DC.)

Names.

Myanmar: lauk-thay, moko-lanma, shwe-gu-than-hlet, thagya-hlandin. English: begar’s-tick, tick clover, tick trefoil.

Range.

Asia- Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, the Philippines, Ryukyu Island, Sri Lanka, and Taiwan; Australasia; Indian Ocean Islands; Pacific Ocean Islands. In Myanmar, found in Chin, Kachin, Kayin, Mandalay, Sagaing, Shan, and Yangon.

Use.

Root: The liquid from stewing the root with a bit of pepper can cure blood in the urine. Leaf: Eating leaves can cure dysentery, bloated stomach, stomachache in children due to worms, and feeling of fullness and indigestion. Taken as a tea, the leaves can cure urinary and skin disorders. The leaves of the plant and the leaves of the dawai-hmaing ( Combretum indicum ) can be lightly boiled in water to cure urinary disorders, dysentery, bleeding hemorrhoids, and hemorrhaging during menstruation. The dried leaves of the plant and the dried leaves of hpalan-taung-mwei ( Cheilocostus speciosus ) can be mixed in equal amounts, made into a powder, dissolved in coconut oil, and kept in the sun; the clear top oil can then be used as ear drops to cure ear infections with pus and earaches; if used as an ointment, the oil can cure scabies, impetigo, erysipelas, open sores and seborrhoeic dermatitus of the scalp. If the leaves are mixed with dried flowers of saga-sein ( Cananga odorata ), steeped in sesamum oil and the oil used as hair oil, it will cure headaches, fever, dandruff, itching of the scalp, and head lice. Plant: Used to kill worms.

Notes.

In India the leaf is used for cough, cold, and abdominal pain; the root for snakebite ( Jain and DeFilipps 1991). In China the plant is applied to abscesses; used as a tonic for dyspepsia, hemorrhoids, and infantile spasms; and also employed as an insecticide and vermicide ( Duke and Ayensu 1985). In South China the species is used as a medicine for infantile spasms, a tonic for dyspepsia, an application against abscesses, a remedy for hemorrhoids, and as a vermicide and insecticide; in Indonesia, an infusion of the dried and powdered leaves is taken or sometimes the powder is made into pills, the leaves are used externally to treat lumbago and internally (with the pods) as a diuretic in treating gravel ( Perry 1980).

The leaves have been found to contain tannin, silicic acid, and potassium oxide ( Perry 1980).

References.

Agricultural Corporation (1980), Perry (1980), Forest Department (1999).