A REVIEW ON MIMOSA PUDICA: A USEFUL WEED

About Authors:
Manu Arora^1*, Amanpreet Singh²
School of Pharmacy & Emerging Sciences,
Baddi University of Emerging Science & Technology,
Makhnumajra, Baddi, Distt. Solan,
Himachal Pradesh-173205, India.
*manu_cognosy@yahoo.co.in

ABSTARCT
Mimosa pudica is a weed which is commonly known as chuemue (touch me not) belongs to the family Leguminaceae. It is found in moist and waste places. Chuemue shows nyctynastic and seismonastic movement. All parts of this plant possess different medicinal properties like dysentery, leprosy, asthma, sedative, emetic and tonic. Its aerial parts contain different secondary plant metabolites like tannins, alkaloids, glycosides, Flavonoids and saponins. This review shows presence of secondary plant metabolites and its ethnopharmacological uses.

Reference Id: PHARMATUTOR-ART-1365

INTRODUCTION
Mimosa pudicaLinn (chuemue) is a sensitive plant belonging to the family Leguminaceae, distributed in Brazil and different parts of India. Mimosa pudica is well known for its rapid plant movement. The plant shows a peculiar nyctynastic movement i.e. the leaflets fold togetherin the evening and the whole leaves droops downward and then reopens at sunshine. The leaves also close up under various other stimuli such as touching, warming or shaking. The shrubs can also be transmitted to neighbouring leaves. This type of movement is called seismonastic movement. Mimosa pudica L. belongs to the genus mimosa (family: Fabaceae).Traditionally it is known to possess sedative, emetic, and tonic properties. All parts of the tree are considered to possess medicinal properties and used in the treatment of biliousness, leprosy, dysentery, inflammations, burning sensation, fatigue, asthma, leucoderma, blood diseases, alopecia, diarrhoea, insomnia, vaginal and uterine infections^(1,2).It has spinous stipules and globose pinkish flower heads and grows as weed in almost all parts of the country⁽³⁾.Sensitive plant has become a serious weed in fields of corn, soybeans, tomatoes, upland rice, cotton, bananas, sugarcane, coffee, oil palms, papayas, coconuts, and rubber in many tropical areas. It is particularly troublesome where hand pulling of weeds is practiced. The species may be controlled by a number of commercial broad-leaf herbicides⁽⁴⁾.

Common names: Sensitive plant, humble plant, shameful plant, sleeping grass, touch-me-not^(5,6⁾.

Other names: In Tongait is known as mateloi (false death);In Urdu it is known as Chui-Mue; In Bengali, this is known as Lojjaboti, the shy virgin; In Indonesia, it is known as PutriMalu (Shy Princess); In Malayalam it is called "Thottavaadi" (wilts by touch); In Marathi it is called "LazaLu" (shy); In Tamil, it is called Thotta-siningi (acts when touched); In Kannada, it is known as "Muttidare Muni" (angered by touch); In Malaysianit is called PokokSemalu (shy plant); In Burmese (Myanmar) it is called HtiKaYoan which means "crumbles when touched"^(6-10⁾.

Geographical Location:Sensitive plant was first described from Brazil. It is a Common weed widely distributed in the Philippines in open, moist, waste places, open grasslands and open thickets, at low and medium altitudes in settled areas⁽¹¹⁾.

Morphological characters
Stem: It is reddish-brown in color, very much stiff, slender and growing to a length of 1.5 m (5 ft). It bears scattered thorns. The stem is erect in young plants, but becomes creeping or trailing with age ⁽¹²⁾.

Leaves: The hairy leaves are alternate, bipinnately compound, with one or two pinnae pairs and 10-26 leaflets per pinna ⁽¹²⁾.

Flowers: On close examination, it is seen that the floret petals are red in their upper part and the filaments are pink to lavender. Flowers have globose heads, peduncles prickly, usually in auxiliary pairs all along the branches. Flowers are pollinated by the wind and insects ⁽¹²⁾.

Fruit: The fruit is of straw colored consists of clusters of 2-8 pods of 1-2cm long each, prickly on the margins. The pods break into 2-5 segments and contain pale brown seeds 2.5mm long. The seeds have hard seed coats which restrict germination ^(12,13⁾.

Phytochemical Investigation
The preliminary Phytochemical screening of chuemue showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and phenolics, steroids, carbohydrates, resins, triterpenes, glycosides mainly c-glycoside^(14-17⁾. It also contains mimosine, mimosinamine, mimosinic acid, tyrosine 3, 4-dihydroxypiridine ^(18-²¹⁾. The seed of the plant contains mucilage composed of d -xylose and d -glucuronic acid. They yield 17% of greenish yellow fatty oil^(22,23⁾. The plant contains tubulin which shows the ability to bind colchicine with its sulfhydryl groups. A new class of phytohormones-turgorines is active in the plant. These periodic leaf movement factors are derivatives of 4-O-(ß-D- glucopyranosyl- 6-sulphate) gallic acid⁽²⁴⁾.Different Flavonoids were isolated and identified as 5,7,3',4'-teteahydroxy-6-C-[β-D-apiose-(1→4)]-β-D-glucopyranosylflavones,5,7,4'-trihydroxyl-8-C-β-D-glucopyranosylflavones,isovitexin-2″-O-α-l-rhamnopyranoside,vitexin-2″-O-α-l-rhamnopyranosideand a mixture of flavonols avicularin and reynoutrin⁽²⁶⁾.

Importance: M. pudica is common in waste land and is also a weed of lawns, crops, pastures and roadsides. In Southeast Asia and the Pacific it is a serious weed in maize, sorghum, sugarcane, tea, soybeans, upland rice and cotton. Because of its tolerance to shading it is an important weed in plantation crops, such as rubber, coconuts, bananas, papaya, coffee, oil palm and citrus. In tropical pastures its dense growth and thorns often deter animals from feeding on suitable forage mingled with it ⁽²⁷⁾.

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Ethnopharmacology
The roots and leaves are commonly used in treatment as bitter, astringent, acrid, cooling vulnerary, alexipharmic, diuretic, antispasmodic, emetic, constipating and febrifuge⁽¹³⁾. The leaves and roots are used in the treatment of piles and fistula. Paste of leaves is applied to hydrocele. Cotton impregnated with juice of leaves is used for dressing sinus. Plant is also used in the treatment of sore gum and is used as a blood purifier⁽³⁾. In Ayurvedic and Unani system of medicine, this plant has been used in diseases arising from corrupted blood and bile, heart disorders, billious fever, piles, jaundice, leprosy, ulcers and small pox. The seeds and other plant parts of sensitive plant contain mimonsine, an amino acid that is known to cause hair loss and depressed growth in mammals⁽²⁸⁾.

Pharmacology
Ethanolic extract of leaves shows hypoglycemic activity in Alloxan-induced diabetic rats⁽²⁹⁾.Aqueous extract of Mimosa pudica shows antinociceptive activity⁽³⁰⁾.Methanolic extract showed significant (p<0.05) hepatoprotective effect by lowering the serum levels of various biochemical parameters such as serum glutamic oxaloacetate transaminase(SGOT), serum glutamic pyruvates transaminase (SGPT), alkaline phospatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBL), total cholesterol (CHL) and by increasing the levels of total protein (TPTN) and albumin (ALB), in the selected model⁽³¹⁾.Aqueous extract of dried roots of Mimosa pudica was tested for inhibitory activity on lethality, phospholipase activity, edema forming activity, fibrinolytic activity and hemorrhagic activity of Najanaja and Bangaruscaerulus venoms⁽³²⁾.Ethanolic extracts of Mimosa pudica leaves shows antimicrobial activity of the plant materials is due to the presence of active constituents like alkaloids or tannins⁽¹⁵⁾.Mimosa pudica root methanolic extract showed very good wound healing activity when compared to the standard drug Gentamicin ⁽³³⁾.The decoction ofMimosa pudica leaves shows anticonvulsant activity⁽³⁴⁾.The aqueous extract of Mimosa pudica is showed anti-asthmatic activity in in-vitro and in vivo animal models⁽³⁵⁾.Ethanol extract of Mimosa pudica exhibited a significant hypolipidemic activity⁽³⁶⁾.Alcoholic extract of Mimosa pudica significantly (P < 0.001) decreases the volume of gastric acid secretion, PH, free acidity, total acidity and ulcer index with respect to control⁽³⁷⁾.Ethanolic extract of roots of mimosa pudica Linn produced a significant and sustained increase in the aphrodisiac activity of normal male mice, without any diverse effects⁽³⁸⁾.

CONCLUSION
Despite the wide use of chuemue, its chemotherapeutic value has not been fully substantiated and the mode of action of its bioactive compounds against diseases has no yet been established. Alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, steroids and glycosides which were isolated from this plant may be responsible for its pharmacological activities. The road ahead is to establish specific bioactive molecules, which might be responsible for these actions. Therefore the cultivation, collection, and further pharmacological exploration ofMimosa pudica are essential.

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