Makahiya – Mimosa Pudica Linn.

makahiya leaves

Makahiya – Mimosa Pudica Linn. / Mimosa Asperata Blanco

Local names: Babain (Ilk.); damohia (Tag.); dilgansusu (Ilk.); harupai (S. L. Bis); huya-huya (Bis); kiromkirom (S. L. Bis); makahia (Pang., Tag); sipu-sipug (Sub); tuyag-huyag (P. Bis); torog-torog (Bik); bashful mimosa, humble plant, sensitive plant (Engl).

Makahiya is very common and abundant throughout the Philippines. It was introduced from tropical America and is now a pantropic weed.

This plant is a diffusedly spreading, half-woody herb, with branched stems up to 1 meter in length, and sparingly prickly with numerous deflexed, bristly hairs. The leaves are very sensitive – both the pinnae and the leaflets – falling when touched. The pinnae are usually 4, digitately arranged at the end of each petiole, and 4 to 9 centimeters long. The leaflets are narrowly oblong, inequillateral, 1 to 1.5 centimeters long, sessile, and sparingly bristly, with pointed tip. The heads are long peduncled, solitary or 2 or 3 in each axil, and nearly 1 centimeter in diameter. The flowers are pink, and are very numerous. The pods are flat, slightly recurved, numerous, 1 to 2 centimeters long, and made up of from 3 to 5 one-seeded joints that at maturity fall away.

According to Nadkarni and Dymock, the roots contain tannin 10 percent, and ash 5.5 percent.

In the Philippines, Guerrero reports that the root is administered as a diuretic and s used against dysentery and dysmenorrhea. He further reports that the entire plant in decoction is considered as an alterant and antiasthmatic.

According to Nadkarni and Dymock the root is aphrodisiac and in the form of decoction (1 in 10) is given in gravel and similar urinary complaints; it is also useful in diseases arising from corrupt blood and bile. The leaves and root in the powdered state are given with milk in cases of piles and fistula. The juice is applied externally to fistulous sores. Corre and Lejanne consider the roots vomitive in the Antilles, Guinea, La Union, and vicinity. They are recommended also for dysentery and diarrhea. Holland quotes Heckel [Ann. Inst. Col. Marseille (1897) 143], who reports that the root is emetic and poisonous in large doses.

The leaves rubbed into a paste are applied to hydrocele in the Concan, and also applied to glandular swellings. The juice of the leaves is used to impregnate cotton wool for dressing in any form of sinus difficulty. The leaves are employed as a bath for pains of the hips and kidney. An infusion of the leaves is considered tonic. The leaves possess emollient properties. An infusion of the leaves is given for dysentery, and as a bitter tonic.

Crevost and Petelot report that Indo-China the seeds constitute a good emetic. Honigberger states that the seeds are used for sore throat and hoarseness in the Punjab and in Cashmere.

Source: Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture