Indian Journal of Natural Products and Resources

Vol. 4(4), December 2013, pp. 432-435

Ethnobotanical notes on Houttuynia cordata Thunb. in

North-eastern region of India

R S Rathi*, Somnath Roy, A K Misra and S K Singh

National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR-ICAR), Regional Station, Umiam-793 103, Meghalaya, India

Received 29 August 2012; Accepted 16 May 2013

Houttuynia cordata Thunb. (Family-Saururaceae) is an ethnobotanically important plant of North eastern region of

India. It is a potential source of antioxidants and used extensively in treating number of diseases such as cancer, coronary

heart disease, diabetes, severe acute respiratory syndrome, blood deficiency, dysentery, etc. This herb is sensitive to severe

cold and remains dormant during winter and propagated through rhizomes. It is a good soil binder due to spreading nature of

roots and leaves. The herb is generally collected from wild and occasionally cultivated as homestead plant. This has resulted

great pressure on the populations occurring in the natural habitats and the plant has become endangered in many parts of

North-east India. This calls for sustainable management and conservation of wild and cultivated resources of H. cordata.

Keywords: Houttuynia cordata, Saururaceae, Medicinal plant, North-east India.

IPC code; Int. cl. (2011.01)−A61K 36/00.

Introduction

Houttuynia cordata Thunb(a). is one of the

important plant of the family Saururaceae1. It is native

to mountainous region of Eastern Asia and occurring

up to an elevation of 2500 m asl. It is assumed that the

ancient people in China were the first to discover the

medicinal properties of this plant and they used the

herb both for edible and medicinal purposes. It is

widespread in North-eastern (NE) region of India and

is known with different local names, viz. Fish mint,

Fish wort, Chameleon, Lizard’s tail in English;

Ja-myrda or Jmyr-doh in Khasi; Machha-turi in Garo;

Ashundary, Tengalai, Dimasa - Mojoukhmo, Hmar -Ai

thang and Pnar-Jarmendo in Assam; Mumbre, Siiya

hamang, Muchandariin in Arunachal Pradesh; Toning

khokin in Manipur; Uithinthang in Mizo; Nuichua or

Nokana in Nagaland; Gandhi Jhar in Nepal and

Ghandhay jhar in North Bengal and Sikkim. The

entire North-eastern region of India represents a

unique set of topography, economic, sociological,

diversity and cultural conditions which differ mostly

from the rest of the country. It is inhabitated by more

than 150 tribes with variegated systems. These tribal

people living in the remote forest areas still depends

to a great extent on the indigenous traditional systems

and gather different plants/herbs from the forests and

use in different ways. The tribes of NE region collect

H. cordata from the wild habitats both for

consumption and for selling in local markets.

The leaves and rhizomes of H. cordata are used as

vegetable, condiments and spices either cooked or

raw. The roots and leaves are also consumed as

salad2. The herb is used as folk medicine as it has

antiviral, antibacterial, immune-stimulant, diuretic,

anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory effects3,4

. The

Japanese people use the leaves for preparing a

beverage called Dokudami cha. It is considered as a

good blood purifier. Leaves are used to cure stomach

ulcer and boiled extract of rhizomes for muscular

pains. The brew made of dried herb is considered very

effective for detoxification, hypertension,

constipation, pulmonary tuberculosis and diuretics.

Besides, it is a good soil binder to protect soils from

erosion in hilly slopes. Considering the importance of

this plant, we have collected plant materials from

Nagaon (Assam), W. Kemeng, Lower Subansiri and

Kurung Kumey (Arunachal Pradesh) which are being

conserved in field gene bank at Umiam.

Distribution and Habitat It is distributed in Bhutan, China, Indonesia, Japan,

Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam,

North-West Himalayan region and NE Region of

India. It was introduced in European countries and

_______________

*Correspondent author:

Phone: 0364-25701933; Fax: 0364-2570651

E-mail: ranbirsinghrathi@gmail.com

RATHI et al: HOUTTUYNIA CORDATA IN NORTH-EASTERN REGION OF INDIA

433

gained popularity due to various medicinal properties.

It grows well in moist and wet climatic conditions on

wide range of soils such as sandy loam, clay loam and

even on rocky places, with an average pH of 5.9 and

78% moisture5. It is a shade loving plant, thus can be

cultivated easily in areas, which has very low light

intensity and are shady. Generally grow in ditch

banks, thicket field margins, forests, wet meadows,

slopes, streams sides, ravines, rocky hills or

mountains parts and river banks.

Botanical description

Perennial herb attained 30 to 60 cm height with

creeping and thin rhizomatous in nature (Plate 1a).

Basal part of stems creeping rooted in whorls at

nodes, apical part erect, glabrous/pubescent on nodes

and sometimes purplish-red in colour. Stipular sheath

is 1-2.5 cm in length and one fourth to half as long as

petiole, usually ciliate, base enlarged and slightly

clasping. Petiole is 1-3.5 cm in length and glabrous.

The leaf blade broadly ovate to cordate, 4-10 cm long,

3-6 cm wide, densely glandular, usually glabrous,

sometimes pubescent at vein axils, generally purplish

abaxially, apex shortly acuminate; veins 5-7, basal or

innermost pair arising ca. 5 above base. Inflorescences

are yellow in colour with 1.5-2.5 cm long and 3-6 mm

wide; peduncles are 1.5-3 cm in length and sub

glabrous; involucral bracts oblong to ovate, 10-15 mm

long, 5-7 mm wide with rounded apex. Bracts are

whitish, linear and inconspicuous (Plate 1b). Stamens

are 3 times longer than ovary and having 2-3 mm

capsule with persistent style. Seed are dicotyledons,

sterile and sometimes produce false plants and the

1000 seed weight is around 0.04g6,7

. Its rhizomatous

root spreads under the soil up to 90 cm on the sides in a

year. Roots start sprouting after winter months.

Propagation It is propagated through rhizomes (Plate 1c), root

ball and seeds; however, the plants produced from

seeds are usually sterile. The root balls/rhizomes are

sliced in to small pieces and placed 5 cm below the

surface of soil with a spacing of 15×100 cm. It is

planted early in the month of February. It starts

flowering in the month of April and continued up to

November and fruiting occurs between May to

December. One and half month old plants are suitable

for consumption and marketing.

Biochemical properties The herb contains a variety of flavonoids,

glycosides, pyridine alkaloids and essential oils8. Four

flavonoids, viz. rutin, hyperoside, quercitrin and

quercetin, have been reported from H. cordata9. The

protein contents in leaves and rhizomes are 8.13 %

and 11.5 %, respectively. The herb has disagreeable

odour which is due to the presence of β-myrcene and

2-decanone. The fatty acid content of the essential oil

is about 81%10

. Among the methylated fatty acids,

capric acid methyl (43.66%), methyl laurate

(16.15%), methyl hexadecanoate (9.27%), undecanoic

acid methyl (5.62%), methyl oleate (1.98%) and

methyl linoleate (1.40%) are predominant. Other

major constituents were β-myrcene (1.62%),

1-terpinen-4-ol (1.59%), decanal (1.49%) and

2-undecanone (1.47%). The roots contain crude fat

(2.07±0.06%), protein (12.22±0.22%), carbohydrate

(23.45±2.11%) and minerals such as Na (1.30 mg/g),

K (49.65 mg/g), Ca (8.25 mg/g), Mn (0.08 mg/g) and

Fe (0.98 mg/g) 11

. The micronutrient profile of this

herb was also observed by Murugkar (2006)12

on the

basis µ% fresh weight and it has Ca (89.7 %), Fe

(3.3%) and β-carotene (28.6). The herb also contains

Plate 1 (a) A bundle of full-grown herb (b) flower and (c) fresh rhizomes of Houttuynia cordata

INDIAN J NAT PROD RESOUR, DECEMBER 2013

434

significant amount of water soluble polysaccharides

such as galacturonic acid (29.4%) and galactose

(24.0%), rhamnose (17.2%), arabinose (13.5%),

glucuronic acid (6.8%), glucose (5.3%), xylose

(2.1%) and mannose (1.8%)13

.

Ethnobotanical uses The herb has many health benefits and it acts against

allergies, asthma and bacterial infection and removes

free radicals (toxins) from the body. It has strong

antioxidant properties which act against stress related

diseases such as cancer, coronary heart disease,

diabetes14

and infections15

. Leaves have been used to

treat the measles, dysentery and gonorrhoea16

. This

plant is proven to have antibacterial effects against

many bacteria such as, Trichophyton, Staphylococci,

Gonococci, Tubercle bacilli, etc. The whole plant is

dried/brewed and used for treatments in antipyretics,

diuretics, pus removal, constipation, colds,

detoxification, swelling, hypertension, tuberculosis and

para-nasal sinusitis. The injection prepared from this

plant is a traditional Chinese medicine used in severe

acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a life-threatening

form of pneumonia owing to the effect of curbing

inflammation17,18

. It is antidotal astringent, anti-

inflammatory, analgesic and slow laxative. The root

juice is applied on skin to treat wounds and other skin

problems by the inhabitants in the North-east region19

.

Externally it is used for abscesses, anal prolapsed, bone

growth stimulation, injuries, snake bites15

, swelling,

urinary troubles and detoxification16

. It is found that the

leaves of Houttuynia cordata and Psidium guajava

with stalk of Lasia spinosa possess a profound

anticestodal efficacy20

. The excess consumption also

causes anti-fertility and itching as perceived by the

people in this region.

In NE region, the Assamese people collect and

prepared ‘Chuttney’ from the leaves of this herb. The

Manipuri people eat both raw and cooked leaves and

stems, while local healer (Maiba) use the herb to cure

dysentery, muscular sprain and stomach ulcer21

and

anaemia, gastritis and tuberculosis22

. Juice extracted

from root is taken in indigestion by the inhabitants in

North-eastern region of India. The tribes in North

Cachar hills of Assam eat leaves and stems to control the

dysentery23

. In parts of North Bengal and Sikkim states

leaves are used as anthelmintic and used in the

traditional medicine by Naga and Manipuri tribes to treat

intestinal worm infection24

. The Apatani tribe of Zero

valley in Arunachal Pradesh use this herb for freshness,

deep sleep and cardio-vascular disorders25

. Tender

young shoots and leaves juice is taken in case of cholera,

dysentery and curing blood deficiency by Khasi, Jaintia

and Garo and other tribes in Meghalaya26

.

Market importance

It is sold in small bundles in the local markets of

Assam and Meghalaya and one bundle of

approximately 50 g of weight costs about Rs.3-5. The

retail price in plain and hilly areas of Manipur range

between Rs.75-110 per kg. The aerial parts of herb

have been sold @ Rs.10-15 per bundle (250-300g) in

retail market of North Cachar Hills area of Assam22

.

Conclusion

H. cordata is extensively used as leafy vegetable,

salad and to cure various ailments by the natives of

NE region of India. It contains water soluble

polysaccharides which are useful for medicine and

food industry. Realizing the importance of this

species, a sysematic management and utilization

needs to be initiated.

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