Flower in Hyderabad, India.

Tridax procumbens is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family. It is best known as a widespread weed and pest plant. It is native to the tropical Americas but it has been introduced to tropical, subtropical, and mild temperate regions worldwide. It is listed as a noxious weed in the United States and has pest status in nine states.^[1]

Description

The plant bears daisylike yellow-centered white or yellow flowers with three-toothed ray florets. The leaves are toothed and generally arrowhead-shaped. Its fruit is a hard achene covered with stiff hairs and having a feathery, plumelike white pappus at one end. Calyx is represented by scales or reduced to pappus. The plant is invasive in part because it produces so many of these achenes, up to 1500 per plant, and each achene can catch the wind in its pappus and be carried some distance. This weed can be found in fields, meadows, croplands, disturbed areas, lawns, and roadsides in areas with tropical or semi-tropical climates.

Tridax

Chemical constituents

A new flavonoid (procumbenetin), isolated from the aerial parts of Tridax procumbens, has been characterised as 3,6-dimethoxy-5,7,2',3',4'-pentahydroxyflavone 7-O-β-D-gluco- pyranoside (1) on the basis of spectroscopic techniques and by chemical means.Tridax procumbens; Flavonoids Plant. Uses in traditional medicine. Commonly used in Indian traditional medicine as anticoagulant, hair tonic, antifungal and insect repellent, in bronchial catarrh, diarrhoea, dysentery, and wound healing. Previously isolated constituents. Alkyl esters, sterols, [5], pentacyclic triterpenes [5,6],, fatty acids [7] and polysaccharides [8]. New isolated constituent. 3,6-Dimethoxy-5,7,2',3',4'-pentahydroxyflavone 7-O-β- D-glucopyranoside (1), named procumbetin Žyield: 0.016% on dried basis..

Human uses

Tridax procumbens is known for several potential therapeutic activities like antiviral, anti oxidant antibiotic efficacies, wound healing activity, insecticidal and anti-inflammatory activity.^[2] Some reports from tribal areas in India state that the leaf juice can be used to cure fresh wounds, to stop bleeding, as a hair tonic. Despite these known benefits, it is still listed in the United States as a Noxious Weed and regulated under the Federal Noxious Weed Act.

Common Names

Its common names include coat buttons and tridax daisy in English, Jayanthi in Kannada, cadillo chisaca in Spanish, herbe caille in French, Jayanti veda in Sanskrit, ghamra in Hindi, Bishalya karani (ବିଶଲ୍ୟକରଣୀ) in Oriya, Kambarmodi in Marathi, Gaddi Chemanthi (గడ్డి చామంతి) in Telugu,vettukaaya poondu in Tamil,^[3] and kotobukigiku in Japanese,

Gallery

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  Ripe fruit with winged achenes ready for wind-dispersal.

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  Residual fruit after achene dispersal.

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  Crimson Tip Colotis danae in Hyderabad, India. Coat buttons is widely visited by butterflies.

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  Danaus chrysippus feeding on Tridax procumbens in Bandung West Java, Indonesia.

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References

4.Phytochemical communicationA new flavonoid from the aerial parts of Tridax procumbens              Mohammed Ali, Earla Ravinder, Ramidi RamachandramDepartment of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Jamia Hamdard(Hamdard Uniersity), P.O. Hamdard Nagar, New Delhi 110062, India

Further reading

Everitt, J.H.; Lonard, R.L., Little, C.R. (2007). Weeds in South Texas and Northern Mexico. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press.  ISBN 0-89672-614-2