Celosia argentea, Quail Grass, Silver spiked cockcomb, Safed Murga

Celosia argentea L.
Family: Amaranthaceae

Synonyms: Amaranthus cristatus Noronha, Amaranthus huttonii H.J.Veitch, Amaranthus purpureus Nieuwl., Amaranthus pyramidalis Noronha, Celosia argentea f. argentea , Celosia argentea var. argentea , Celosia argentea f. cristata (L.) Schinz, Celosia argentea var. cristata (L.) Kuntze, Celosia aurea T.Moore, Celosia castrensis L., Celosia cernua Roxb. [Illegitimate], Celosia coccinea L., Celosia comosa Retz., Celosia cristata L., Celosia debilis S.Moore, Celosia huttonii Mast., Celosia japonica Houtt., Celosia japonica Mart., Celosia linearis Sweet ex Hook.f. [Invalid], Celosia margaritacea L., Celosia marylandica Retz., Celosia pallida Salisb., Celosia plumosa (Voss) Burv., Celosia purpurea J.St.-Hil., Celosia purpurea A.St.-Hil. ex Steud., Celosia pyramidalis Burm.f., Celosia splendens Schumach. & Thonn., Celosia swinhoei Hemsl., Chamissoa margaritacea (L.) Schouw,

• English: Quail Grass, Silver spiked cockcomb
• Arabic: sheiba عرف الديك (نبات)
• Azərbaycanca: Gümüşü seloziya
• Bulgarian: Петльов гребен
• Catalan: Vellutet
• Chinese: 鸡冠花
• Finnish: Kukonharja
• French: Grande immortelle
• German: Silber-Brandschopf
• Hausa: farar áláyyafóo
• Hindi: Safed Murga
• Hungarian: Ezüst celózia
• Japanese: ケイトウ
• Malay: Bunga balung ayam
• Malayalam: Kozhipoovu, Cheruchira
• Persian: گل تاج‌خروس تاجی
• Sanskrit: वितुन्नः vitunnah
• Sinhala: කිරිහැන්ද
• Spanish: borlón
• Swedish: Plymört
• Tamil: Makilikkeerai, Pannaipoo
• Telugu: కోడిజుట్టు పూలు kodi juttu poolu, గునుగు gunugu, బతుకమ్మ పువ్వు batukamma puvvu
• Vietnamese: Mào gà trắng
• Yoruba:soko yòkòtò

Description: Annual herb, erect, 0.4-2 m, simple or with many ascending branches. Stem and branches strongly ridged and often sulcate, quite glabrous. Leaves lanceolate-oblong to narrowly linear, acute to obtuse, shortly mucronate with the excurrent midrib, glabrous; lamina of the leaves from the centre of the main stem 2-15 x 0.1-3.2 cm, tapering below into an indistinctly demarcated, slender. petiole; upper and branch leaves smaller, markedly reducing; leaf axils often with small-leaved sterile shoots. Inflorescence a dense (rarely laxer below) many-flowered spike, 2.5-20 x 1.5-2.2 cm, silvery to pink, conical at first but becoming cylindrical in full flower, terminal on the stem and branches, on a long, sulcate peduncle up to c. 20 cm long, which often lengthens during flowering. Bracts and bracteoles lanceolate or towards the base of the spike deltoid, 3-5 mm, hyaline, ± aristate with the excurrent midrib, persistent after the fall of the flower. Perianth segments 6-10 mm, narrowly elliptic-oblong, acute to rather blunt, shortly mucronate with the excurrent midrib, with 2-4 lateral nerves ascending more than halfway up the centre of each segment, margins widely hyaline. Filaments very delicate, free part subequall¬ing or exceeding the staminal sheath, sinuses rounded with no or very minute intermediate teeth; anthers and filaments creamy to magenta. Stigmas 2-3, very short, the filiform style 5-7 mm long; ovary 4-8-ovulate. Capsule 3-4 mm, ovoid to almost globular. Seeds c. 1.25-1.5 mm, lenticular, black, shining, testa very finely reticulate.  

Used  in  Ayurveda  and  Sidha.  Dried  plant  powder  used for menstrual irregularities. Flowers and seeds in diarrhea, urinary  troubles  and  excessive  menstrual  discharge;  seeds, roots and leaves for urinary disorders and stomach complaints. Root paste applied all over the body as febrifuge, to cure fever with shivering; root juice cooling. Seeds with antimetastatic and immunomodulating  properties,  used  for  eye  troubles, acute  conjunctivitis,  uveitis,  keratitis,  diarrhea,  blood  diseases, mouth sores; inflorescence for epistaxis, diarrhea, hemorrhoidal  bleeding,  leucorrhea,  functional  uterine  bleeding, hematuria. Leaves antipyretic, mild laxative, antihepatotoxic, aphrodisiac, pounded with lime applied on fresh cuts, backache and wounds, also used as cosmetic substances for skin depigmentation; leaves eaten for digestion. Veterinary medicine, for goats and sheep, root extract mixed with Tamarindus fruit given orally in hydrogen cyanide poisoning. [CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants]

Used  internally  for  haemato-  logical and gynaecologic disorders  and externally to treat inflammation and  as a disinfectant. The whole plant is used to treat dysentery and dysuria, and  used  externally  as  poultices  for  broken  bones.  The  plant  is  used  for  eye and liver ailments  in Yunnan,  China  and  also  for the treatment of mouth  sores and blood diseases and used as an aphrodisiac. The petioles are used  to  treat  sores,  wounds,  boils  and  swellings. The  seeds  are  used  for  the  treatment of conjunctivitis and hypertension. In China, the seeds are used for  haemorrhage,  menorrhagia and opthalmia.  In Indonesia, the flowering  tops are used for bleeding lungs whereas in Malaysia, the red flowering tops  are  prepared  as  decoctions  which  are  given  in  cases  of  white  discharges,  excessive  menstruations,  haematuria,  dysentery,  proteinuria,  bleeding  piles  and bleeding nose. [A  GUIDE  TO MEDICINAL PLANTS An Illustrated,  Scientific  and Medicinal  Approach]

Flowers—used in menorrhagia, blood-dysentery. Seeds—antidiarrhoeal, also used in stomatitis. Whole plant—antibacterial, antiscorbutic and cooling. [Indian Medicinal Plants An Illustrated Dictionary]

Aqueous extract of seeds of Celosia argentea L. given intraperitonneally to animals infected with colon 26-L5 carcinoma cells, reduces significantly liver metastasis through the induction of cytokins [MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE AISA-PACIFIC: DRUGS FOR THE FUTURE?]

230 Published articles of Celosia argentea