ARGYREIA NERVOSA

Common name: Elephant Creeper, Hawaiian baby woodrose, silky elephant glory, woolly morning glory • Hindi: घाव बेल ghav bel, समुन्दर का पाट samundar-ka-pat, समुद्र शोख samudra-sokh, विधर vidhara • Marathi: गुग्गुळी gugguli, समुद्रसोक samudrasoka • Tamil: கடற்பாலை katar-palai, சமுத்திரப்பாலை samuttira-p-palai • Malayalam: samudrappacha • Telugu: చంద్రపొద chandra poda •Kannada: ಸಮುದ್ರ ಹಾಳೆ samudra haale, ಸಮುದ್ರವಲ್ಲಿ samudravalli • Bengali: bichtarak, goguli • Konkani: समुद्रसोंक samudra somk • Sanskrit: मूर्वा murva, समुद्रफलक samudraphalaka, समुद्रशोष samudrashosha, वृद्धदारु vriddadaru

Botanical name:   Argyreia nervosa   

Family: Convolvulaceae (Morning glory family)

Synonyms: Argyreia speciosa, Convolvulus nervosus, Lettsomia nervosa

Introduction: Elephant Creeper is a vigorous vine native to India, introduced world-wide. It has large, leathery heart-shaped leaves, which are white on the underside due to hairs. It is called elephant creeper because of the large leaves which look like elephant ears. Leaf blades are 15-25 cm long, and 13-20 cm wide, heart-shaped. Trumpet-shaped flowers are borne in cymes, on long, white-velvety stalks. Sepals are 1.3-1.5 cm long, velvety like the leaves. Flower-stalks are up to 15 cm long. Flowers are 5-7.5 cm long, with a short tube and bell-shaped limb, lavender to pink, the throat being of a darker shade. The flowers are followed by hard, woody capsules, which when they ripen break open to resemble miniature roses. The toxic seeds should not be eaten as they contain alkaloids.

Flowering: July-December, March-April

Chemical constituents:

Seeds: contain the glycosides of palmitic, oleic, stearic, behenic, linoleic and linolenic acid. The ergoline alkaloids includes ergometrine, ergometrinine, lysergic acid-α-hydroxy ethyl amide agroclavine, chanoclavine-I, chanoclavine-II, festuclavine, lysergene, lysergol, isolysergol, setoclavine, iso-setoclavine, ergine and isoergine. The free amino acids reported in the seeds were glutamic acid, glycine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, praline and α-aminobutyric acid. 

Medicinal use

Aphrodisiac, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, hypoglycemic, nootropic, antiinflamatory, anticonvulsant activity