New Researches

	Katu thampala
Vernacular Name: Sinhala: Katu thampala; Eng: Prickly amaranth; Hin: Cauleyi, Kateli; Tam: Mullukkirai
Description: An erect, glabrous, spinous herb, varying in colour from green to red or purple, 30-60 cm in height with grooved branches and sharp divaricate spines in the leaf axils; leaves simple, alternate, ovate, lanceolate or oblong, entire, glabrous above, main neives numerous, conspicuous below; flowers small, sessile, yellowish white or pale green, numerous, in dense axillary clusters and in terminal or interrupted spikes; fruits ovoid capsules, membranous, circumscissile about the middle.
Propagation: By seeds.
Part Used: Whole plant.
Chemical Constituents: Higher alkanes and their methyl derivatives, higher aliphatic alcohols, acids and esters, amino acids, 13-sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, cholesterol, cz-spinasterol, a-spmasterol octacosanoate, glycosides of x-spinasterol and oleanolic acid have been reported in the plant.
Uses: The plant is sweet, cooling, alexeteric, laxative, diuretic, stomachic, antipyretic, febrifuge, sudorific, galactagogue, haematinic, appetizer and tonic it is useful in vitiated onditions of pitta, hyperdipsia, burning sensation, hallucination, leprosy, eczema, bronchitis, leucorrhoea, menorrhagia, haemorrhoids, abscesses, boils, burns, strangury, nausea, flatulence, colic anorexia, fever, intermittent fever, agalactia, anaemia and general debility. The roots are thermogenic and haemostatic. They are useful in vitiated conditions of kapha, meorrhagia, haemoptysis, haematemesis and leucorrhoea. Synonyms: Alternanthera triandra Lam., Altemanthera denticulate R. Br., Altemanthera nodiflora R. Br., Altemcinthera repens Gmel Vernacular Name: Sinhala:Mukunuwenna; Hin: Gudris; Tam: Ponnannkannjkkirai Description: A much branched prostrate herb, branches often purplish, frequently rooting at the lower nodes; leaves simple, opposite, somewhat fleshy, lanceolate, oblanceolate or linera-oblong, obtuse or subacute, sometimes obscurely denticulate, glabrous, shortly petiolate; flowers small, white, in axillaiy clusters; fruits compressed obcordate utricles, seeds suborbicular. Propagation: By seeds Part Used: Whole plant. Chemical Constituents: -Sitosterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, cc-spinasterol, oleanolic acid rhamnoside, 24-methylene cycloartenol, cycloeucalenol, lupeol, 5-cc-stigmasta-7-enol and its palmitate. Uses: The plant is bitter, sweet, astringent, acrid, cooling constipating, depurative; digestive, cholagogue, galactagogue and febrifuge and is useful in vitiated conditions of kapha and pitta, buring sensation, diarrhoea, leprosy, skin disease, dyspepsia, haemorrhoids agalactia, splenomegaly and fever.