Indian Heliotrope

Overview

Native to South America, Heliotropium indicum is invasive in areas of the United States. New England is barely included in its distribution, with collections made only in Massachusetts. This plant is present in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world as well as in many temperate areas and has a phenomenally wide invasive range. Sometimes harvested from the wild, the plant is used for its medicinal virtues locally.

Vernacular Names

Indian turnsole (English), Da wei yao (Chinese), Tournesol indien (French), Hatisundha (India), Sin-letmaung-gyi (Myanmar), Trompang elepante (Philippines), Yah nguang-chang (Thai).

Agroecology

The plant occurs on waste land, in regularly desiccating pools and ditches and anthropogenic environments in sunny areas, at altitudes typically below 800 m. It is considered a weed of fields and pastures in general.

Morphology

• Roots - strong taproot.
• Stem - deeply grooved and covered with large, coarse, white hairs, branched.
• Leaves - opposite or alternate, ovate to oblong-ovate, somewhat hairy, acute or acuminate, base decurrent along the petiole, 3- 8 cm long.
• Flowers - Inflorescence internodal, an unbranched and very rarely dichotomous helicoid cyme, the peduncle portion 2-3 cm long, pubescent, the fertile portion 9-16 cm - long. Flowers bisexual with five sepals, lanceolate, 2-3 mm long, corolla lilac to occasionally white. 
• Fruits - angular with an apical beak, 2-3 mm long, glabrous with two lobes which spread apart and separate to give two nutlets at maturity.
• Seeds - small, black rounded.

Cultivation

This plant is propagated by seeds (generative propagation), and can flower all year round.
 

Chemical Constituents

Alkaloids (heliotrine, lasiocarpine, indicine, 12-acetyl indicine, indicinine, indicine-n-oxide, retronecine, trachelanthamide, putrescine, spermidine, homo spermidine, permine),saponins, phenolic compounds. tannins, glycosides, flavonoids, steroids, phytosterols, triterpenes.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• For centuries, it has been widely used to treat warts, inflammation, and tumours. It is used as an analgesic to alleviate rheumatic pain, as a diuretic and to treat various skin problems, including yaws, urticaria, scabies, ulcers, eczema and impetigo, in tropical Africa.
• The leaves are haemostatic, stomachic.
• The flowers are small-dose emmenagogue and large-dose abortifacient. They are used to manage the loss of menstrual blood, yaws and skin ulcers.
• Decoction of dried roots is used as emmenagogue in the Philippines and root decoction or any plant component is used for asthma in Mexico.
• Leaf juice is used in India to treat sores and insect bites and is given to infants for coughing.
• Leaf decoction is used for thrushes in Indonesia; poultices are used for herpes and rheumatism.
• In the treatment of thrush, diarrhoea, diabetes, venereal diseases and regular urinary excretion, a decoction of the entire plant is used. The whole plant is boiled and the beverage is used as a thermal rash remedy. As an eye-lotion and to cleanse ulcers, an infusion of the plant is used. It also used as antiplasmodial, anticataract, antifertility, antihyperglycemic, antiglaucoma, antiallergic, and larvicidal activity.