Bitterroot Restoration

Common names

• Sensitive plant
• Touch-me-not
• Humble plant
• Shameful plant
• Sleeping grass, etc.

Mimosa pudica (pudica= shy) is a creeping annual or perennial herb  often grown for its curiosity value: the compound leaves fold inward and droop when touched or shaken, re-opening minutes later. The species is native to South America and Central America, but is now a pantropical weed.

Medicinal uses

Extract of Mimosa pudica immobilizes the filariform larvae of Strongyloides stercoralis in less than one hour. In contemporary medicine, Mimosa pudica is being investigated for its potential to yield novel chemotherapeutic compounds. It contains an alkaloid called mimosine, which has been found to have potent antiproliferative and apoptotic effects. Aqueous extracts of the roots of the plant have shown significant neutralizing effects on the lethality of the venom of the monocled cobra (Naja Kaouthia). It appears to inhibit the myotoxicity and enzyme activity of cobra venom.