Phytochemical, Therapeutic, and Ethnopharmacological Overview for a Traditionally Important Herb: Boerhavia diffusa Linn.

Table 5

Ethnopharmacological reports of uses of BD in various parts of the world.

S. No.	Location	Plant part and formulation	Uses	Reference
1	Northeastern Brazil	Sitting baths made with tea from the bark	Problems of genitourinary system in females and inflammations	[116]
2	Nigeria	Whole plant	Treatment of threatened miscarriage	[117]
3	Tropical Africa	Boiled roots	Ulcers, abscesses, and Guinea worm disease	[118]
		Boiled roots and leaves	Expectorant and febrifuge and, in large doses, emetic	”
		Decoction of aerial parts	Gastrointestinal pains, convulsions, intestinal worms, and regulation of menstruation	”
4	Ghana	Root decoction	Anaemia, heart troubles, palpitations, and jaundice and applied externally to yaws	[118]
		Powdered root with butter or oil	Abdominal tumours	”
5	Congo	Root sap is rubbed on the neck and throat in water or palm oil or in a decoction	Mumps, laryngitis, and burns,; spleen troubles, diarrhoea, dysentery, haematuria, and gonorrhea	[118]
6	Democratic Republic of Congo	Leaf decoction	Gonorrhoea and pain	[118]
7	Angola	Root decoction	Jaundice	[118]
8	Berg Damara people, Namibia	Chew or boil the root	Gastroenteritic problems	[118]
	Damara people, Namibia	Tea made from the root	Prolapsed uterus	”
9	Buner District, NWFP, Pakistan	Bandage of roots crushed in boiled milk used externally	Ulcers/interviews with the local inhabitants, selected informants, the herbalists “Hakims,” and sellers” pansaris’	[119]
10	Chakma, Arma, and Tripura community, Chittagong Hill tracts, Bangladesh	Whole plant, juice, and powder	Blood purification, urinary; troubles, contraception, and jaundice/questionnaire survey with local herbalists	[120]
	”	Whole plant	Pulmonary tuberculosis	”
	”	Plant powder	Abdominal tumor, dysentery, and renal diseases	”
	”	Flowers and seeds	Contraceptives	”
	”	Roots	Jaundice, anemia, gonorrhea, blood purification, and as stimulant	”