89-TAGATES ERECTA
Local names: Marigold, Gendaphool, Zendu
Family: Asteraceae
Location: In front of Administrative building
Characters: It is a herbaceous annual or perennial plant. Height ranges from 30–110 cm. The root is cylindrical, pivoting, with a fibrous and shallow branching system. The stem is striated, sometimes ridged, smooth or slightly with villi, cylindrical, oval and herbaceous to slightly woody, with resin channels in the bark, which are aromatic when squeezed. Opposite leaves at the bottom alternate at the top, up to 20 cm long, pinnate, composed of 11 to 17 leaflets, lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, up to 5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide, acute to acuminate, serrated to sub-holders. The main characteristic of the flowers is that they are grouped in small heads or in solitary inflorescences, on peduncles up to 15 cm long, they are liguladas of yellow colors to red. In the flowers of the disc: 150 to 250 in the simple heads, in the doubles it shows different degrees of transformation in ligules, yellow to orange corollas, of 8 to 10 mm in length. It reproduces easily by seeds.
General use: The ‘marigold meal’ and ‘marigold extract’ consists of dried powdered flowers and is used mainly in salmon, crustaceans and poultry feed to enhance the yellow colour of the meat and of the egg-yolks. Extract of the flowers, used as a yellow to orange food colorant, e.g. in salad dressings, ice cream, dairy products and other foodstuffs with a high fat content, but also in soft drinks, bakery products, jams and confectionery. Fresh and dry flowers can be used to dye wool, silk and cellulose fibres into shades of golden-yellow to orange and olive-green to bronze, depending on the mordanting substances used. It is popular worldwide as an ornamental. The whole herb is considered medicinal with anthelmintic, aromatic, digestive, diuretic, sedative and stomachic properties. It is used internally to treat indigestion, colic, severe constipation, dysentery, cough and fever, and externally to treat sores, ulcers, eczema, sore eyes and rheumatism. A decoction of the flowers is drunk against jaundice. Sometimes Tagetes erecta is planted in crop fields as an insect repellent because of its sharp peculiar smell, although the plant itself is susceptible to insect pests. In India it is grown for its essential oil from which an ‘attar’ is produced. The oil is used in small traces in perfumery to impart floral and ‘apple’ notes. In Gabon the leaves are occasionally used as a condiment.