NAME: Cassytha filiformis

FAMILY: Lauraceae

COMMON NAMES: Devil's gut, parasitic vine, Dodder Laurel,love-vine

LOCAL NAMES: Omoniginigini, omonigele-gele, sulunwahi.

MORPHORLOGICAL DESCRIPTION:

Cassytha filiformis is a much branched, slender, parasitic or semiparasitic plant,green leafless, scruby and perennial plant.

USEFUL PART(s): Stem, twigs

GENERAL USES:

Whole plant is used as a paste for paper-making by local people
Leaves are used as vegetables
The stems serves as a source for brown dye when mashed in water.
Stems are used to make a mucilaginous hair tonic when dried,powdered and mixed with sesame oil

GEOGRAPHIC DISTRIBUTION:

Africa, Asia, Australia, America

WHY IS IT GREEN?

Anthelmintics
Antimicrobials
Antifungal
Oedema
Headache
Hepatitis

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

It poses a threat to endangered plant species in coastal habitats in the tropics

FUN FACT

Its stem has a luxuriant hair-like appearance

FURTHER READINGS

Armenia, A., Hercegovina, H., Gustinanda, D., Salasa, A. N., Yuliandra, Y., & Ismed, F. (2015). Acute and delayed toxicity study of Cassytha filiformis defatted ethanolic extract. World Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Khare, C. P. (2007). Cassytha filiformis Linn. In Indian Medicinal Plants. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-70638-2_309

Mythili, S., Gajalakshmi, S., Sathiavelu, A., & Sridharan, T. B. (2011). Pharmacological Activities of Cassytha Filiformis: A Review. Asian Journal of Plant Science and Research.

Wu, C. S., Wang, T. J., Chia-Wenwu, Wang, Y. N., & Chaw, S. M. (2017). Plastome evolution in the sole hemiparasitic genus laurel dodder (cassytha) and insights into the plastid phylogenomics of lauraceae. Genome Biology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evx177

Yuliandra, Y., Armenia, A., & Arifin, H. (2017). Antihypertensive and antioxidant activity of Cassytha filiformis L.: A correlative study. Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apjtb.2017.06.007