Beach Launaea – Launaea sarmentosa on a sand dune along the Junagadh coast, Gujarat
The Beach Launaea (Launaea sarmentosa) is an interesting herb with a rosette leaf arrangement, spreading on the sand dunes. It is a popular medicinal herb used for a variety of ailments. The root of this plant is semi-woody while the leaves are long, few to many in number and aggregated at the root base. The stem in procumbent (plant or stem growing along the ground without throwing out roots). Flowers are bright yellow, small in size, with long and slender flowering branches. They are classified under the family Asteraceae (Asteraceae or Compositae is the name of an exceedingly large and widespread family of flowering plants that includes sunflower).
Beach Launaea is a native herb to coastal areas in Africa (east coast), Madagascar, the Seychelles, Mauritius, India, Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The image loaded in this blog was taken at Junagadh coast of Gujarat. Beach Launaea can grow in altitudes ranging from 0 – 15 m and they are common in the terrestrial areas too.
Beach Launaea is utilized as a dietary plant in the Indian Ocean island country of Maldives for centuries in the preparation of dishes such as mas huni. Mas huni is prepared with a combination of tuna, onion, coconut and chilli. The ingredients are finely chopped together and mixed with coconut gratings. This dish is served along with freshly-baked bread (roshi) and sweetened hot tea.
Beach Launea Closer view
The various therapeutic uses of Beach Launaea include soporific (sleep-inducement) for children, juice extracted from the plant is given as a tonic, it acts as a diuretic agent (increases the production of waste fluids leading to frequent urination than usual) and application for rheumatism. Crushed roots are mixed with sugar and eaten for Urethritis (Inflammation of the Urethra). It is also used as an ingredient in the preparation as a galactagouge (promotes lactation in humans and animals).
A chemical called Taraxasterol (a monohydroxy triterpene acting as a chemopreventive agent against carcinogenesis) has been isolated from leaves and Taraxeryl acetate has been extracted from the roots of the plant.
Vernacular names for Beach Launaea includes sagar pathari in Marathi and Chentam in Tamil. Beach Launaea are seen well when they are in bloom, adding a yellowish tinge to the golden coloured sand dunes.
Taxonomic position
Kingdom: Plantae
Unranked: Eudicots
Unranked: Asterids
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Cichorieae
Genus: Launaea
Species: L. Sarmentosa
Author: (Wild.) Sch. Bip. Ex Kuntze
IUCN status
Not Assessed (NA)
©Deepak Samuel, June 2014
marinelifeindia 
Dear Doctor,
this blog is really informative and good source to know basic things.
Thanks Adhavan.. do keep reading and sharing…..