Cleome, Ajagandha

Caravella; Spiderflower; Wild Mustard (Yellow-flowered)
Tilaparni (White-flowered)
Ajagandha (Yellow-flowered)
Arkapushpi (Blue-flowered)
Hurhur; Panwar (Yellow-flowered) (Unani)
Kadugu, Nalvelai (Siddha)
Bai Hua Cai Zi (TCM, Seed)
Picture White-flowered (C. gynandra)
Curtis’s Botanical Magazine, vol. 40 (1814)

Picture Yellow-flowered (Cleome viscosa)
J. Martyn , F. Panzer, Abbildung und Beschreibung sellener Gewaechse neu übersetzt,
systematisch bearbeitet und mit Anmerkungen begleitet von D. Georg Wolffgang Franz Panzer (1797)
(From the State Botanical Collection, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, Australia)

Botanical name:


Cleome spp.
Several plants are used:
  1. White-flowered: C. gynandra (syn. Gynandropsis gynandra, G. pentaphylla)
  2. Yellow-flowered: C. viscosa
  3. Blue-flowered: C. monophylla

Parts used:


Seed, leaf, root; Whole plant
Seeds are used in TCM (rarely)

Temperature & Taste:


Very Warm, dry. Pungent

Uses:


1. Clears Wind-Cold:
-Fever; Typhus Fever (root, whole plant, or leaf) (Charaka, Sushrata)
-Infantile Convulsions

2. Clears Phlegm, Stops Cough:
-Cough, Bronchitis, Asthma from Wind-Cold or Cold-Phlegm

3. Clears Wind-Damp, Eases Pain: (TCM)
-numbness and pain in the back and joints
-Lumbago, Arthritic and Rheumatic complaints

4. Moves the Blood, Resolves Stasis:
-bruising, swelling and pain from Injury
-Amenorrhea; Chlorosis
-Hemorrhoids
-Prostatitis (Seed, API)
-chronic Obstructive Jaundice (Seed, API)

5. Kills Worms:
-Seeds are used to Kill worms; Round-worm (small teaspoonful twice daily)
-also to kill maggots in wounds, ulcers, in the nose etc. (strong infusion of seeds)

6. Externally:
-poultice of the leaf or seed for cold-type Joint pain
-swelling, trauma, bruising, sores, apply a poultice topically
-bark and leaf externally is rubefacient and counter-irritant in neuralgia, rheumatic pain etc.
-applied to Boils and Buboes to promote suppuration
-Fistulas, Hemorrhoids
-externally applied, the juice relieves severe headaches (Unani)
-applied topically to foul ulcers
-oil prepared by boiling the whole plant in oil is applied to Leprosy
-topically for earache, acute deafness (leaf juice with salt, or the infused oil etc.)


Dose:


Seed Powder: 1–3 grams (API)
Leaf in Decoction: 3–6 grams

Substitute:


1. Mustard seed may replace the Seed. (Cleome seeds have been used as Mustard seed in Unani)

Main Combinations:


1. Tio increase weight, the seed has been combioned with Withania.

Major Formulas:




Cautions:


Very hot, so not suitable in Heat diseases or Hot constitutions.

Main Preparations used:


Infused or decocted Oil of the Herb