NIS - libdoc.who.int - World Health Organization

WHO monographs on medicinal plants commonly used in the Newly Independent States (NIS)
Description
An annual highly polymorphous plant, small taproot with numerous
rootlets. Stems, branched, many prostrate or slightly ascendant, 10–
60(100) cm in length, with longitudinal grooves, hairless. Leaves, alternate,
petiolate or sessile, oblong to lanceolate or linear, hairless, apex
pointed, up to 3 cm long, with pointed and toothed stipules. Ochrea covering
the nodes, transparent, silvery, 4–12 mm long, bilobed, later cut into
a few narrow strips, 8–10-veined. Flowers, hermaphrodite, entomophile,
axillary, solitary or 2–5 fascicled, very small, inconspicuous, greenish-red;
peduncle 1–1.5 mm long; calyx with 5 sepals, green with white or pink
margins, 1.5–3.5 mm long; 5 petals, 2.5–3.5 mm long; 8 stamens; superior
ovary with 3 very short styles and inconspicuous stigmata. Fruits, triangular
nutlets, ovate to almost elliptical, as long as the epicalyx or protuberant,
striated, flattish or concave faces, dark brown to black, minutely
roughened, 2–4 mm long (3, 4, 7, 9, 21–28).
Plant material of interest: dried aerial parts
General appearance
Whole or cut leafy stems up to 40 cm in length. Stem is 0.5–2 mm thick,
branched, with nodes, cylindrical or slightly angular and longitudinally
striated; bears sessile or shortly petiolate, glabrous entire leaves. Leaves
differ widely in shape and size: broad-elliptic, oblong, obovate, lanceolate
or nearly linear, up to 3 cm long and 1 cm wide. The sheath-like stipules
(ochrea) are lacerate and silvery. The flowers are small and axillary, they
have 5 greenish-white perianth segments, the tips of which are often coloured
red. The fruits are 2–4 mm long, brown to black triangular nutlets,
usually punctate or striate (1, 2).
Organoleptic properties
Odour: slight; taste: slightly astringent (2).
Microscopic characteristics
Cells of upper and lower epidermises have thick, straight, polygonal to
sinuous cell walls. Cell walls of upper epidermis occasionally irregularly
thickened. Cuticle is longitudinally striated at the leaf edge and on the
largest veins. Stomata anisocytic. 1–3 layers of epidermis cells at the leaf
margins have strongly thickened cell walls, which have been transformed
into papilla-like protuberances. In the mesophyll of the leaves, and in the
stems, there are numerous, sometimes very large, clusters of calcium oxalate
crystals. There are many sinuous thick-walled fibres, especially on
the upper and lower veins, and at the leaf edge.
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