Pith papara

A common weed of garden and cultivated fields during winter season, it is a diffuse annual herb with glabrous stem. Leaves multifid segmented flat narrow, linear and glaucous. Flowers pale rose with purple tips, membranous and in terminal or leaf opposed racemes. Fruit globose and I-seeded. Flowering and fruiting in November to February.

Part used: Whole plant

Usage: The plant is used as diuretic, laxative and an efficient liver tonic. It is also used in skin diseases and to purify blood. The dry plant is beneficial in jaundice and fever. The fresh juice of leaf is used in eye problems. The
leaf paste is taken with water to increase the flow of urine in fever. The drug sold in the market as ‘Pitpapro’.

Agrotechniques : It is abundant in wild hence, agrotechnique not standardized. It can however, be propagated through seeds.