Description

Slender Diamond Flower (Oldenlandia herbacea) is an erect or ascending annual or perennial herb hat can grow up to 50cm long, occasionally to 60cm. The slender stems are usually much-branched. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a medicine and a dye.

CHaracteristics:

Slender Diamond Flower is an erect much branched hairless bushy herb. Branches are slender, wiry, widely diverging. Oppositely arranged stalkless leaves are linear- lanceshaped, usually with curled-back margins. Lower leaves are broader than the upper ones. Flowers are tiny and appear singly or in groups of few, on slender long stalks, in leaf axils. Flower tube is slender with 4 spreading petals. Flowers are up to 5 mm in diameter, white or mauve. Fruits are round capsules.

Medicinal Uses:

The plant is useful in elephantiasis, fever, verminosis, inflammations, asthma, bronchitis and ulcers. The leaves are used as an expectorant in the treatment of asthma and consumption. The plant has been reported to be used medicinally in Peninsular Malaysia, without specification