Traditional uses and benefits of Coat Button Plant

Tridax procumbens commonly known as Coat Button is a prostrate herbaceous plant, from the Asteraceae / Compositae, the sunflower family. The plant is native to Mexico, Central America (i.e. Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) and tropical South America (i.e. Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru) but it has been introduced to tropical, subtropical, and mild temperate regions worldwide. It is listed as a noxious weed in the United States and has pest status in nine states. Since ancient times, this species has been used in Ayurveda in India. Coat buttons, coatbuttons, Mexican daisy, tridax, tridax daisy, wild daisy, dagad-phul are some of the popular common names of the Coat Button. The plant is sometimes harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine.

Coat Button Facts

Plant Description

Coat Button is a semi-prostrate, spreading, herbaceous, perennial, procumbent annual herb that normally grows about 8-30 inches (20-75 cm) tall. Stem is cylindrical, solid and highly hispid, covered with multicellular hairs of 1 mm, tuberculate at the base. Hairs are more scattered towards the base and attenuated towards the top. The stems produce new roots at the leaf nodes.  The plant has strong taproot. The plant is found growing in found in annual crops, roadsides, pastures, fallow land, meadows, waste grounds, railways, riverbanks, dikes and dunes and occasionally in lawns, perennial crops and nurseries.

Leaves

Leaves are opposite, simple, fleshy, pubescent, and carried by a concave petiole, 0.8-2.5 cm long. Leaf blades are thick, soft and dark green. The lamina is oval to lanceolate, 2.5 to 6 cm long and 2 to 5 cm wide, base attenuate in corner and with strongly and irregularly serrated margin. Both sides are hispid, with tuberculate based bristles. Pubescence is most abundant on the underside. 2-3 lateral veins are present on each side of the midrib.

Flowers

At the end of the long stems, is a capitulum inflorescence, comprising at the periphery of 4 to 7 spreading flowers. Flower looks like daisy .The flower is tubular, yellow centered white or yellow flowers with three-toothed ray florets. They are about 0.4-0.6 inches (1-1.5 cm) wide, and held on a 4-12 inches (10-30 cm) long stalk. It has two types of flower: ray florets and disc florets with basal palcentation. Sometimes the flowers are 3 lobed with long, penduncled heads. Flowering and fruiting occurs throughout the year, but from May to December is the time that it is fully in bloom.

Fruit

Fertile flowers are followed hard achene dark brown to black, narrowly obconical, and 2.0-2.5 mm long, with 15-20 patent, 0.12-0.24 inches (3-6 mm) long, rather stiff, feathered, unequal bristles and having a feathery, plume like white pappus at one end. Calyx is represented by scales or reduced to pappus.

Microscopy of Coat Button

Part of Plant	Morphology	Observation
Leaf	Color	Green
	Odor	Characteristics
	Taste	Acrid
	Size	3-7 cm long and 1-5 cm wide
	Shape	Lanceolate to ovate
	Texture	Short
	Fracture	Easy
	Apex	Acute
	Margin	Irregularly toothed
	Arrangement	opposite
	Appearance	Rough and scabrous
Stem	Color	Green
	Odor	Characteristic
	Taste	Acrid
	Size	23-46cm
	Shape	Cylindrical
	Texture	Smooth
	Fracture	Soft
Root	Color	Brown
	Odor	Characteristic
	Taste	Acrid
	Size	15-32cm
	Shape	Tortuous
	Texture	Rough
	fracture	Soft

 

Traditional uses and plant preparation of Coat Button

Location		Preparation/extract	Plant ailment uses
Guatemala		Leaves: juice	·         Anemia, colds, inflammation, hepato-pathies, vaginitis, stomach pain, diarrhea, mucosal inflammation, skin infections, bleeding.
		Leaves: poultice, dried infusions Stems: dried	·         Reduce inflammation, gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, high blood pressure, diabetes
		Whole plant: dried	·         Protozoal infections, treatment of chronic ulcers caused by leishmaniasis, gastrointestinal disorders
India		Leaves: dried and other herbs ingested orally, juice	·         Diabetes, insect repellent, used to treat diarrhea, and to help check for hemorrhages, as well as hair loss. Jaundice, healing of wounds, inflammation
Africa		Whole plant: blending with other herbs adding salt and water	·         Treating mastitis in livestock
Africa	Ghana	·         Decoction with Phyllanthus amarus ·         Aqueous extracts	·         Anti-malarial, antibacterial, wound-healing ·         Anti-plasmodial activity
	Nigeria	Whole plant: dried	·         Fever, Typhoid fever, cough, back ache, stomach ache, diarrhea, epilepsy
	Benin	Whole plant: dried	·         Rabbit or livestock feed
	Togo	Leaves: dried	·         Dressing wounds, pain, malaria and abdominal and gastrointestinal mycosis

 

Traditional uses and benefits of Coat Button

• In Indian traditional medicine, it is used as anticoagulant, repellent, antidiarrheal, anti-dysenteric.
• Leaf juice is used on fresh wounds, to stop bleeding, and as hair tonic in tonic.
• It is used for liver disorders, arthritis, and heartburn also for hair growth in Ayurveda.
• Local Yoruba population uses the leaves for treatment to reduce blood pressure In Nigeria.
• Leaf juice is used for colds, inflammation, vaginitis, stomach pains and diarrhea in Guatemala.
• Whole plant used for protozoal infections and treatment of chronic ulcers.
• Dried whole plant is used for fever, cough, back ache, diarrhea and epilepsy in Africa.
• Dried leaves are used for malaria, gastrointestinal mycosis, and for dressing wounds.
• Traditionally, the plant has been in use in India for wound healing and as an anticoagulant, antifungal, and insect repellent.
• Juice extracted from the leaves is directly applied on wounds.
• Its leaf extracts were used for infectious skin diseases in folk medicines.
• It is used in Ayurvedic medicine for liver disorders, hepato-protection, gastritis, and heartburn.
• The plant is also used as treatment for boils, blisters, and cuts by local healers in parts of India.
• The plant can be used for wound healing, staunching bleeding and treatment of diarrhea, backache and bronchial catarrh.
• Coat buttons has been used to treat skin diseases and heal wounds, as an anticoagulant, fungicide, as a hair tonic, insect repellant and to treat diabetes.
• It is useful in the treatment jaundice, bronchial catarrh, diarrhea, dysentery, inflammation, ulcers, anal fistula, and hemorrhoids.
• Leaf juice can be used to cure fresh wounds, to stop bleeding.
• Leaf extract cures liver disorders.
• In Jamaica, it is used for fever and for the treatment of catarrh.
• Plant is also used in the treatment of gastrointestinal and respiratory infections, high blood pressure, and diabetes.
• The plant is also used to stop bleeding, and for liver disorders, arthritis, heartburn, and as a hair tonic to promote hair growth.
• Leaf juice is used for colds, inflammation, vaginitis, stomach pains, and diarrhea in Guatemala.
• Whole plant is used for protozoal infections, and for the treatment of chronic ulcers.
• In Nigeria, the entire plant is used to treat typhoid fever, cough, fever, stomachache, backache, diarrhea, and epilepsy.
• The leaves are antiseptic, haemostatic and parasiticide.
• They are used as a treatment against bronchial catarrh, dysentery, and diarrhea.
• A fine paste of the leaves is applied externally to reduce swelling of hemorrhoids and to stop bleeding.
• The leaf sap is applied topically to sores and ulcers.
• The juice extracted from the leaves of the plant is applied directly on the Wounds.
• The leaf extracts are used for infectious Skin diseases.
• A paste of leaves is used externally to reduce swelling of Hemorrhoids and stop Bleeding.
• The leaf sap of the plant applied topically cures Sores and Ulcers.
• It is used to treat Liver disorders, Gastritis and Heartburn.
• It is used to treat Boils, Blisters and Cuts.
• In Guatemala, T. procumbens is used as an antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral treatment as well as for vaginitis, stomach pain, diarrhea, mucosal inflammations, and skin infections.
• The leaf juice is used to treat wounds and stop bleeding.
• In Guatemala, the entire plant is used for the treatment of protozoal infections.
• Decoction of the leaves is used against pain, to treat malaria, and against abdominal and gastrointestinal mycosis.
• It is known as an insect repellent, used to treat diarrhea, and to help check for hemorrhages in India

Other Facts

• In Africa, plant is used for treating mastitis in livestock.
• The leaf juice possesses insecticidal and parasiticidal properties.
• Smoke produced by burning the plant is used to repel mosquitoes.
• The leaves are used as a hair restorative.

Prevention and control

Cultural Control

Coat Button does not have the great powers of regeneration possessed by some other perennial Compositae and can be easily controlled by cultivation and hand pulling.

Chemical Control

Herbicides reported to give control of T. procumbens include ametryne, atrazine, 2, 4-D and diuron, Avirosan (dimethametryn + piperophos) and oxadiazon in rice, bromacil, metobromuron + metolachlor in cowpea, MCPA and 2, 4-D in sisal and oxyfluorfen in groundnut.

References:

https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=38575#null

http://www.hear.org/pier/species/tridax_procumbens.htm

https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/55072

https://gd.eppo.int/taxon/TRQPR

http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/gcc-42420

http://www.stuartxchange.com/CoatButtons

http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Tridax%20Daisy.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tridax_procumbens

https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/33338#brief

http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Tridax%20procumbens

https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=TRPR5

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