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Mimosa pudica L. in Pandanus database of Indian plant names
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  Mimosa pudica L. details in Pandanus database of Indian plant names

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 Latin nameMimosa pudica L.
 FamilyFabaceae, Subfamily: Mimosoideae
 Identified with (Skt)samaṅgā
 Identified with (Hin)lajjāvantī, lājvanti
 Identified with (Ben)lajjābatī
 Identified with (Tam)toṭṭālvāṭi, toṭṭālcuruṅki
 Identified with (Mal)toṭṭāvāṭi, toṭṭālvaṭi, tiṇṭārmaṇi
 Identified with (Eng)Sensitive plant, Humble plant
 Botanical infoA shrubby plant up to 90cm high, pinkish flowers in globose heads, grows as weed all over India in warmer and moist areas.
 Search occurrencesamaṅgā, in the Pandanus database of Sanskrit e-texts
 See plant's imageMimosa pudica L. in Google image search
 Encyclopedias &
 Dictionaries

Monier-Williams: A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (p. 1153)
samaṅga, mf(ā)n. (see 2. sam) having all the limbs, complete AV. (in MBh. applied to the mythical cow Bahulā); m. a kind of game L.; N. of two men MBh.; (pl.) of a people ib.; (ā) f. N. of various plants (accord. to L. "Rubia Munjista and Cordifolia, Mimosa Pudica, Aloe Indica, &c.") VarBṛS. Suśr.; of a river MBh.

Tamil Lexicon, University of Madras (p. 2083)
toṭṭālcuruṅki: 1. Sensitive plant; 2. Humble plant

Tamil Lexicon, University of Madras (p. 2083 )
toṭṭālvāṭi: 1. Sensitive plant, s.sh., Mimosa pudica; 2. A species of sensitive plant, l. sh., Mimosa leguminosae

Dymock, Warden, Hooper: Pharmacographia Indica (vol. I, pp. 538-539)
Mimosa pudica, Leguminosae
Fig.- Sensitive plant (Eng.)
A native of Brazil long naturalized in India, and called in Sanskrit Khadiri and Anjalikarika, i.e., joining the hands in worship or prayer. MÄŤr Muhammad Husain states that it is much valued as a medicine by the Indians, and is considered to be resolvent, alterative, and useful in diseases arising from corrupted blood and bile. The juice is also applied externally to fistulous sores. He says that at the time of the Pakhad Nakshatra, the Indian Mahometan resort to the place where the plant grows, wash, and offer some sweets and incense; they then gathered the plant, taking care that the shadow of the gatherer does not fall upon it, and dry it in the shade: when the name is again in the name Nakshatra, they powder it and mix about four grains with cow's milk, and say the following mantra seven times before they take it: - -*-. (This mantra appears to be a farrago of Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit of doubtful meaning.) The medicine is taken every day for three weeks in the same manner, -in the first week all bilious diseases and fevers are supposed to be cured, in the second piles, jaundice, &c., and in the third leprosy, scabs and pox.
Ainslie, noticing its use in Southern India, says: -"A decoction of the root of this plant is considered on the Malabar Coast to be useful in gravellish complaints. The Vytians of the Coromandel side of India prescribe the leaves and root in cases of piles and fistula: the first are given in powder, in a little milk, to the quantity of two pagodas' weight or more during the day." (Mat. Ind. II., 432.) In the Concan the leaves are rubbed into a paste and applied to hydrocele; and their juice with an equal of horse's urine is made into an 'anjan' which is used to remove films of the conjunctiva by setting up an artificial inflammation. In what is called 'cracked pot cough' by the natives, the root is directed to be gathered on Sunday, wrapped in Bhojpatra (bark of Betula Bhojpatra), and tied with a string made of silk of five different colours; this packet is to be kept in the sun and tied upon the patient's neck at ebb tide.
This is the commonest kind of sensitive plant, and is too well known to require description; it has an acid and pungent taste; the root is fibrous.
Theophrastus (H. P. IV. 3.) mentions a sensitive plant called -*- with pinnate leaves and spinous branches of which he says -*-.


 
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