DIVERSIDAD GENÉTICA Y MEJORAMIENTO DE PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants and improvement of medicinal herbs:

Portulaca oleracea, a garden plant prevalent from spring to autumn in Japan, showed the ability to efficiently remove from water bisphenol A (BPA), which is well known as an endocrine disrupting compound (EDC) having estrogenic properties. In water culture, 50 μM BPA was almost completely removed within 24 h when the ratio of whole plant weight to the water volume was set up at 1 g to 25 ml. The estrogenic activity of the water decreased in parallel with the elimination of BPA. This plant also rapidly removed other EDCs having a phenol group including octylphenol (OP), nonylphenol (NP), 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) and 17β-estradiol and, thereby, removed the endocrine disrupting activities. In addition, the ability of P. oleracea to remove BPA was not affected by BPA concentration (up to 250 μM), by cultivation in the dark, by temperatures ranging from 15°C to 30°C, or by pH ranging from 4 to 7. Moreover, the ability of P. oleracea to individually remove BPA, NP, and OP was the same as when they were all present. These results suggest that P. oleracea is a promising material for practical phytoremediation of landfill leachates and industrial wastewater contaminated with the tested EDCs. © 2007 The Society for Biotechnology, Japan.

Whole plant: whole plant boiled, tea drunk for liver

PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Partes aéreas.

ACCIÓN FARMACOLÓGICA= Pharmacological action: Refrescante, laxante, calmante.

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA= Chemical composition: Vitamina C: 700mg por cada 100gr de planta fresca. Sales de Potasio: 1% en la planta fresca y 70% en la planta seca. Alcaloides: en baja concentración: 0,03%. Otros: carotenoides, ácido oxálico, sacariferoide (2%), beta-sitosterol, urea, mucílagos, resinas, aceite volátil, glucósido, ácidos orgánicos (1%), ácido gamalinolénico y prótidos.

ZONA GEOGRÁFICA= Geografical zone: Uruguay. 

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Distribución: Regiones Tarapaca, Atacama, Coquimbo, Valparaiso, Metropolitana de Santiago, O’Higgins, Maule, Nuble, Araucania, Los  Rios, Los Lagos.

Usos medicinales: La infusion de la verdolaga tiene efecto diuretico, sirve para la dispepsia y la diabetes. El cocimiento de las hojas se utiliza para las inflamaciones renales. Si se consume en grandes cantidades tiene efecto purgante. Tambien se usa como antihelmintica.

Whole plant: Same uses as those given for Portulaca mucronata. Used by the Surinam Saramaccan as an ingredient in a curative herbal bath. Plant is boiled and the water used for treating arthritis or muscle pains by the Guyana Patamona. Juice from macerated plant is applied as an antiseptic to cuts and bruises to stop bleeding and to heal wounds, by the Guyana Patamona.

Stem and Leaf: Crushed in water for an hypotensive by the French Guiana Palikur.

Leaf: In Surinam, leaves mixed with sugar or soap are applied onto mature abscesses. In French Guiana an infusion of leaves is used as a cholagogue, to treat renal colic, and to prepare the body before taking a purgative. Crushed and mixed with coconut oil and vinegar, and placed on sprained limbs.

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Range. Thought probably originally native to southwestern United States, and now widely distributed in warm temperate, tropical, and subtrobical regions through­out world.

Uses
Leaf: Used in kidney disease treatment; also, as a laxative and digestive.
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Origin

All over India, cultivated as a vegetable.

Action:

Refrigerant (reduces body heat), mild spasmodic, diuretic, antiscorbutic. Used in scurvy and in diseases of liver, spleen, kidney and bladder; also in dysuria, stomatitis and dysentery. A paste of leaves is applied to swellings, erysipelas, burns and scalds.

Seeds—diuretic, antidysenteric; applied externally to burns and scalds.

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Origin

Jamaica

Folk medicinal uses

This is a well-known pot-herb used fairly commonly in Jamaica and in other parts of the world. It has been considered cooling, anti-scorbutic and diuretic. In Jamaica and also in the Gold Coast and among the Mayas it is considered to be a useful "heart tonic". It has also been used as a stomachic, vermifuge, medicine for skin diseases, as an application for swellings and bruises and as an ingredient of a syphilis remedy, as a lotion for inflammation of the eyes and with oil as a dressing for burns.

1) GONZALEZ, Matías ; LOMBARDO, Atilio ; VALLARINO, Aida. Plantas de la medicina vulgar del Uruguay. Montevideo : Talleres Gráficos, 1937. p. 125.

2) ALONSO, Jorge R. Tratado de fitomedicina : bases clínicas y farmacológicas. Buenos Aires : ISIS, 1998, p. 965.

3) IMAI, S., et al. Removal of phenolic endocrine disruptors by Portulaca oleracea. Journal of Bioscience and Bioengineering. 2007, vol.103, nº5, p.420-426.

4) Barret, Bruce Economic Botany vol. 48, nro. 1 .-- p. 8-20 1994

5) Robertt, A., et al.. Medicinal Plants of the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname, French Guyana)/Smithsonian NMNH. cited online: 17-08-2017

6) Plantas silvestres comestibles y medicinales de Chile y otras partes del mundo/Cordero R., Sebastián; Abella A., Lucía; Galvez L. Francisca; Corporación chilena de la madera: Concepción, 2017 . -- 292 p.

7) DeFilipps, Robert A.; Krupnick, Gary A. / PhytoKeys, v. 102. - - p. 1 - 314,  2018.

8) Khare, C.P./ Indian Medicinal Plants. -- Nueva Dheli: Springer, 2007 . - p 515.

9) Asprey, G.F; Phylis Thornton/ Medicinal plants of Jamaica. Parts III & IV. – p. 67.