Nan chao woei | หนานเฉาเหว่ย | Vernonia amygdalina
Family: Asteraceae - Genus: Vernonia
The plant grows alongside the road at the entrance of TCDF and Eco-Logic Thailand.
Bitterleaf is a small shrub that can grow to a height of 2 to 5 meter. The leaves are elliptical and up to 20 centimeter long. Its bark is rough. The plant is named bitter leaf (aka Bitter-tea vernonia or common bitterleaf) in English because of its bitter taste.
The plant has creamy white flowers with a sweet scent (particularly at night).
Bitterleaf can be eaten as a vegetable, but is mostly know for its medicinal use.
As a medicinal plant it has several uses attributed to it, including for diabetes, fever reduction,
Bitterleaf flowers in the dry season, February to April.
THE SHRUB
Bitter Leaf is an annual or perennial herbs (often with annual stems from woody rootstocks), it can be a small to large shrub, a woody scrambler or small trees.
Bitterleaf can grow from 2 to 5 meter tall.
THE LEAVES
Leaves are lance shaped to narrowly elliptic, usually about 4 times as long as wide, hairless or with sparse hairs; leaf-stalk short, up to 2 centimeter; net-veining prominent; margin entire or finely toothed.
The leaves are used for medicinal use and can be eaten as a vegetable.
THE FLOWERS
Flower-heads forming clusters up to 15 centimeter, creamy white, occasionally tinged with mauve; sweetly scented, particularly at night.
FRUIT
The small fruits have both small glands and hairs as well as a pappus of bristly hairs.
CULINARY USES
Bitterleaf is a highly appreciated vegetable Africa and is be consumed in various dishes. No reference to culinary use in Thailand is found.
TRADITIONAL MEDICINAL USE
NOTE: please take advice from a doctor if you are planning to use herbal medicine.
The leaves, bark and roots of the Bitterleaf are said to have medicinal properties.
Bitter Leaf is commonly used in traditional medicine.
Leaf decoctions are used to treat fever, malaria, diarrhea, dysentery, hepatitis and cough, as a laxative and as a fertility inducer. They are also used as a medicine for scabies, headache and stomach-ache. Root extracts are also used as treatment against malaria and gastrointestinal disorders.
Root extracts are also used as treatment against malaria and gastrointestinal disorders.
Bark infusions are also taken to treat fever and diarrhea, dried flowers against stomach disorders.
Vernonia amygdalina is also useful as a control agent against diseases in plants. The ash from burnt branches is used to control seed-borne fungi (Curvularia, Aspergillus, Fusarium and Penicillium spp.) thus ameliorating seed viability and germination capacity. It has also been used for brewing beer as a substitute for hop.
INTO THE WILD: a down to earth experience
For guests and visitors to Paksong we organize weekly tours "The Edible Forest" and Foraging weekends: Into the Wild. We work with local guides to take you in the jungle of Paksong. After foraging, we will cook a meal with the ingredients, using bamboo together with you!
Come and join and learn about the abundance of food that nature gives us!
INTO THE WILD!
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