Hygrophila longifolia (Latin Hygrophila Spinosa) – a dicotyledonous flowering plant of the family Acanthus, genus Hydrophilus or Barleria (auricular or spinosa). A traditional Indian plant, in India is called Kokilaaksha or Talimakhana (Yunani Ayurvedic or Ayurveda medical system, respectively), sometimes also called ikshura, ikshuganda and ikkiri.
The root system is well developed.
The plant stem is long, standing straight, in rare cases, can grow at an angle to the ground.
The arrangement of leaves is pairwise, opposite. In the center of the leaf is a vein, which can be of different shades from brown to green, venation is feathery type. The shape of the leaves is elongated, it expands to the middle, and again tapers to the top of the plate. The color of the leaves is bright green, the length of the leaf can reach 20 cm, width – 1.5 cm. In the axils of the leaves, which are in the water position, under favorable conditions, flowers can form.
Chemical composition
The leaves of Hygrophila longifolia contain:
- Aliphatic esters of 25-oxo-gentriacontanyl acetate and methyl-8-n-hexyltetracosanoate;
- Butelin;
- Lupeol – 0.51%;
- Stigmasterol and beta-sitosterol (0.69%);
The roots contain:
- Lupeol (0.121%);
- Beta-sitosterol (0.029%);
The seeds contain:
- Seed oil contains linolenic acid (11%), palmyric acid (8%) and stearic acid (0.6%) asterol I-IV;
- Asteracanthin and Asteracanthinin (alkaloids);
- Lupeol – 0.044%;
- Beta-sitosterol (0.031%).
In a preliminary analysis of the composition of the leaves of the Hyphrophila longifolia, steroid classes, saponins (0.68 +/- 0.12%), tannins (4.92 +/- 0.18), phenols (0.16 +/- 0, 10%) and cardiac glycosides, while terpenoids, alkaloids and flavonoids were absent. Despite this, in the course of quantitative analysis, a very small amount was noticed – 1.14 +/- 0.14% alkaloids and 0.24 +/- 0.19% flavonoids. The exact composition of Hygrophila longifolia is currently unknown.
Hygrophilus longifolia belongs to the class of plants of ancient Indian medicine ‘Vajikaran’ and helps to improve intimate life, and is also used as a general tonic, sedative, asthma, jaundice, liver diseases and as a diuretic, in addition, it is used for blood diseases and inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatism and edema.
Hygrophil longifolia plant is a traditional hematopoietic agent and aphrodisiac in Indian medicine, also known for its property of protecting the liver.
It is part of the M-Vita ultra, Stonil ultra.