66-MIMOSA PUDICA
Local names: Touch me not, chhuimui, Lajalu
Family: Mimosaceae
Location: In front of Department of Botany
Characters: The stem is erect in young plants but becomes creeping or trailing with age. It can hang very low and become floppy. The stem is slender, branching, and sparsely to densely prickly. The leaves are bipinnately compound, with one or two pinnae pairs, and 10–26 leaflets per pinna. The petioles are also prickly. Pedunculate (stalked) pale pink or purple flower heads arise from the leaf axils in mid-summer with more and more flowers as the plant gets older. A single flower survives for less than a day, and usually dies completely by the next day. Flowers of M. pudica are very brittle and soft. The globose to ovoid heads are 8–10 mm (excluding the stamens). On close examination, it is seen that the floret petals are red in their upper part and the filaments are pink to lavender. The leaflets also close when stimulated in other ways, such as touching, warming, blowing, and shaking, which are all encapsulated within mechanical or electrical stimulation & it is termed as seismonastic movements. This reflex may have evolved as a defense mechanism to disincentivize predators, or alternatively to shade the plant in order to reduce water loss due to evaporation. The stimulus is transmitted as an action potential from a stimulated leaflet to the swollen base (pulvinus). The action potential then passes into the petiole, and finally to the large pulvinus at the end of the petiole, where the leaf attaches to the stem.
General use: Traditionally root of touch me not plant is used for treating snake bites, diarrhoea, small pox, fever, ulcer, jaundice, haemorrhoids, asthma, fistula and leucoderma. The leaves decoction or as a paste is used for treating haemorrhoids, wounds, fistula, pink eye, toe infections, depression, insomnia and hydrocele. Seed is used for treating urinary tract infection. The seed mucilage is used for making tablets as it is both a good binder and disintegrant. The whole plant is used for treating rheumatism, cancer, edema, depression, muscle pain and elephantiasis. It is also a good insect repellent. Here in our village we use the whole plant to treat leg pain.