Common Name:

General Information

Thesium viride is a hemi-parasitic perennial plant producing tufts of branched or unbranched stems 30 - 45cm tall from a woody rootstock[, ]. Longer stems comprise leaves only, whilst the shorter stems have flowers[].
The plant is harvested from the wild for local medicinal use.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Tropical Africa - Sierra Leone to Nigeria, cameroon and southern Sudan.

Habitat

Wooded savannah areas subject to fires; dry bush; rocky places; along streams and in fallow fields; at elevations from 800 - 1,750 metres[, ].

Properties

Medicinal Rating
Habit	Perennial
Height	0.40 m
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

Thesium species are parasitic on a wide range of plants, without evident host specificity. However, specific details are lacking for most of the African species[].

Edible Uses

None known

Medicinal

The powdered aerial parts are eaten either pure or in a sauce to treat jaundice; a decoction of the branches is drunk for the same purpose[].

No chemical or pharmacological research on this plant has been done. However, cardiac glucosides and quercitrin (a flavonoid glycoside) have been isolated from other Thesium species[].
Thesium species are hemi-parasitic and a complicating factor of research into the properties of the plants is that compounds extracted from Thesium may have been produced by the host plant. Thesinine (a pyrrolizidine alkaloid) isolated from Thesium might well be an example of transfer from a host[].

Other Uses

None known

Propagation

Seed -

Add a Comment:

If you have any useful information about this plant, please leave a comment. Comments have to be approved before they are shown here.

Name:

Email(Private):

Message:

Captcha: subtract 1 from 12