Siam Villa Garden: Green Chiretta

Andrographis paniculata (Burm. f.) Wall. ex Nees (AP) is an important medicinal plant and widely used around the world. It belongs to the family Acanthaceae. AP is used as a traditional herbal medicine in Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand and is ethnobotanically used for the treatment of snake bite, bug bite, diabetes, dysentery, fever, and malaria. In the Unani and Ayurvedic medicines, AP is one of the mostly used medicinal plants. In recent times, commercial preparations of this plant extracts are also used in certain countries. However, the preparations yet need to be standardized for their better efficacy. The aerial part of AP is most commonly used; its extracts contain diterpenoids, diterpene glycosides, lactones, flavonoids, and flavonoid glycosides. Whole plant leaves and roots are also used as a folklore remedy for different diseases in Asia and Europe. AP has been reported to have a broad range of pharmacological effects including anticancer, antidiarrheal, antihepatitis, anti-HIV, antihyperglycemic, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antimalarial, antioxidant, cardiovascular, cytotoxic, hepatoprotective, immunostimulatory, and sexual dysfunctions.

A. paniculata is native to Taiwan, Mainland China, and India. It is also commonly found in the tropical and subtropical Asia, Southeast Asia, and some other countries including Cambodia, Caribbean islands, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam. This plant is also found in different phytogeographical and edaphic zones of China, America, West Indies, and Christmas Island.

A. paniculata is an annual, branched, erect, and herbaceous plant which grows in hedgerows throughout the plane lands, hill slopes, waste ground, farms, moist habitat, seashores, and roadsides. It also can be cultivated in garden. Moist shady places, forests, and wastelands are preferable for their well development.