I used to just toss out any unknown plants as I was weeding since trying to figure out what every weed was, was just too time consuming. But now, thanks to easy identification tools, it's easy to just snap a picture. Of course, the results are not always accurate, but it's still not a bad resource when trying to determine whether a plant is a friend or foe who needs to be go, i.e. be weeded out of the garden.
One plant I came across was identified by the image to be Euphorbia serpens.
A quick search of it's uses do not show anything promising, even some sites list it as a plant to avoid because it's latex sap can cause skin irritation.
However, upon further investigation, I came across this Research Article published by Research Journal of Medicinal Plants in 2015 titled:
This research found that Euphorbia serpens, when extracted through some solvents, had efficacy against multi-drug resistant V. cholerae.
In this study, dry leaves of Euphorbia serpens and Amaranthus viridis (Amaranth) were extracted with a variety of different solvents such as hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, ethanol and water.
It was observed that ethanolic extract (ethanol alcohol) of both the plants showed good anti-Vibrio activity against all the 15 V. cholerae strains tested.
Aqueous extracts (water) of Euphorbia serpens also showed zone of inhibition almost to a similar extent that was observed with ethanolic extract.
To determine whether the bioactive compounds present in water and ethanolic extracts were the same, the researchers analyzed the extracts by TLC and by contact bioautography bioactive spots and found that both the extracts possessed the same Rf value. Thus the researchers came to the conclusion that the same compound was likely responsible for anti-Vibrio activity in both aqueous and ethanolic extracts.
Hexane extract of Euphorbia serpens also showed anti-Vibrio activity but much less than ethanolic extract.
There were no anti-Vibrio activity for dichloromethane and ethyl acetate extracts of Euphorbia serpens.
I found these results very fascinating, especially since this plant is thought to just be a pesky weed but perhaps it's just a medicine waiting to be further explored.
Source:
Angana Payne, Asish Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Subhajyoti Deka, Lahari Saikia and Shoma Paul Nandi, 2015.
Anti-Vibrio and Antioxidant Properties of Two Weeds: Euphorbia serpens and Amaranthus viridis.
Research Journal of Medicinal Plants, 9: 170-178.
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