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General Information
Chromolaena Odorata is regarded as wild plant that grows in tropical, and subtropical forest. It also grows in the bushes. The odarata is included as species of flowering shrub in the sunflower family. It is native to the Americas, from Florida and Texas in the United States south through Mexico and the Caribbean to South America. It has been introduced to tropical Asia, west Africa, and parts of Australia.Common names include Siam weed, Christmas bush, devil weed, camfhur grass, common floss flower and triffid.
In Indonesia is called as Krinyu which grows easily in every warm area. It is a kind of plant that has many benefit for health. It came to believe that it can cure internal disease but it is mostly used to cure the skin wound and treat eyes pain for the leaves are able to stop bleeding. It is said this kind of leaves contains antibiotic and others esensial substances.
The way to apply is very simple
- Pick some leaves, knead them
- Wait until the kneaded leaves produce liquid
- Apply to the wound, and plaster it
By the time the crashed leaves touch your wound, you feel quite pain but after few minutes, you will be relieved as the leaves contain cerylic alcohol, sisterol, isosakuranetine and odoratine that kills the bacteria. The leaves also contain an essential oil such as sesquiterpenic acid, eupatol and anisic acid while the seed contain alkaloids
Chromolaena odorata often starts its life as a perennial plant with more or less woody stems that die down at the end of the growing season. It eventually becomes more shrub-like, producing long, rambling stems that can be 7 metres or more long; forming tangled thickets of growth up to 3 metres high in the open and 7 metres or more in the forest. The tree is harvested from the wild as a local source of medicines. Often grown as an ornamental, it also has potential as a pioneer species in reforestation projects. The leaves and petioles have glandular dots emitting a strong pungent smell when crushed - phenols and alkaloids in the plant, in particular in the leaves, have an allelopathic effect, inhibiting the germination of its own seeds and seedling development of other plants.
It is a multi-stemmed shrub to 2.5 m (100 inches) tall in open areas. It has soft stems but the base of the shrub is woody. In shady areas it becomes etiolated and behaves as a creeper, growing on other vegetation. It can then become up to 10 m (33 feet) tall. The plant is hairy and glandular and the leaves give off a pungent, aromatic odour when crushed. The leaves are opposite, triangular to elliptical with serrated edges. Leaves are 4–10 cm long by 1–5 cm wide (up to 4 x 2 inches). Leaf petioles are 1–4 cm long. The white to pale pink tubular flowers are in panicles of 10 to 35 flowers that form at the ends of branches. The seeds are achenes and are somewhat hairy. They are mostly spread by the wind, but can also cling to fur, clothes and machinery, enabling long distance dispersal. Seed production is about 80000 to 90000 per plant. Seeds need light to germinate. The plant can regenerate from the roots. In favorable conditions the plant can grow more than 3 cm per day.
How It Grow
This plant grown in warm and humid tropics and subtropics area, it can grow up to 1,000 metres with temperatures are within the range 20 - 35°c, but it goes to 16 - 38°c. The plant can be killed by temperatures -1°c or lower or lower. A plant of the warm and humid tropics and subtropics. It grows best in areas where annual daytime temperatures. Commonly grown as an ornamental, in recent decades the plant has become a serious pest in the humid tropics of South East Asia, Africa and the Pacific Islands. It has small, wind-dispersed seeds that can also cling to hair, clothing and shoes. It spreads rapidly in lands used for forestry, pasture and plantation crops such as rubber, coffee, coconut, cocoa and cashew. The plant forms dense stands in disturbed land, preventing the establishment of other species, both due to competition and allelopathic effects. As tropical country, Indones has many wild forest where this plant grows or even in the road side which is curently taking no serious concern on its benefit but in some areas, this plant is regarded as the first aid, especially for skin wound.
[1]https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromolaena_odorata
[2]http://www.hear.org/pier/scientificnames/index.htm
[3] http://ecocrop.fao.org/ecocrop/srv/en/home
Thank You 