THE MEDICINAL IMPORTANT OF Portulaca oleracea IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DISEASES
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE- – – – – – – – i
CERTIFICATION – – – – – – – ii
DEDICATION- – – – – – – – iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS- – – – – – iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS- – – – – – v
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Information- – – – – – – 1
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Origin of Portulaca oleracea– – – – – – 3
2.2 propagation and Distribution of the plant – – – – 3
2.3 Uses of Portulaca oleracea– – – – – – 5
2.4 Culinary uses- – – – – — – – 6
2.4.1 Removal of soil salinity- – – – – – – 7
2.5 Toxicology of Portulaca oleraced– – – – – 8
CHAPTER THREE: MEDICAL IMPORTANCE OF PURSLINE
3.1 Medical Importance of Portulaca oleracea– – – – 9
3.2 Antidiabetic Activity – – – – – – – 10
3.3 Anticancer Activity – – – – – – – 10
3.4 Antiulcerogenic Activity – – – – – – 11
3.5 Anti-microbial Activity – – – – – – 11
CHAPTER FOUR: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
4.1 Summary- – – – – – – – – 13
4.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – – 13
Reference
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.0 Background Information
Portulaca oleracea is a warm climate, herbaceous succulent annual plant with a cosmopolitan distribution belonging to the Portulaca ae family. It is commonly known as purslane (USA and Australia), rigla (Egypt), pigweed (England), pourpier (France), and ma-chi-xian (China). (Elkhayat, 2008). It is distributed widely in the topical and subtropical area of the world including many parts of the United Sates and is eaten extensively as a potherb and is added to soups and salads around the Mediterranean and tropical Asian countries (Palanis Wamy, 2002). Americans and oborigines of Australia grind the seed of this plant into flour for used in mush and bread (Mohmed, 1994). Portulaca oleracea also provides a source of nutritional benefits owing to its rich omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidant properties (McAvoy, 2001).
Portulaca oleracea has been used as a folk medicine in many countries, acting as a febrifuge, antiseptic, vermifuge, and so forth (Lee, 2012). It exhibit a wide range of pharmacological effect, including anti-inflammatory (Chan, 2000), antioxidant (Zhow, 2012), and wound-heading (Rashd, 2003) properties. It is listed by the World Health Organization as one of the most used medical plant and it has been given the term “Global Panacea” (Chen, 2006). The Chinese folklore described as “Global Panacea” (Chen, 2006). The Chinese folklore described as “Vegetable for long life” and it has been used for thousands of year in traditional Chinese medicine (Wang, 2009 and Jin, 2013). It is cold in nature and sour in taste and is used to cool the blood, clear heat, stanch bleeding and resolve toxins. The dried aerial part of this plant is indicated for the treatment of fever, dysentery, diarrhea, carbuncle, eczemed and hematochezia, with a recommended dose of 9-15g (Chen, 2013 and Zhao, 2014).
Portulaca oleracea has a high potential to be used as human and animal food and to be utilized as pharmacological agent in medicine. Diverse compounds have been Isolated from Portulaca oleracea, such as flavonoids, alkaloids polysaccharides, fatty acids, terpenoids, sterds, proteins vitamins and minerals.
