Impatiens balsamina L.Family: Balsaminaceae
Synonyms: Balsamina angustifolia Blume, Balsamina balsamina (L.) Huth [Invalid], Balsamina coccinea (Sims) DC., Balsamina cornuta (L.) DC., Balsamina foeminea Gaertn., Balsamina hortensis Desp., Balsamina lacca Medik., Balsamina minutiflora Span., Balsamina mollis G.Don, Balsamina odorata Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don, Balsamina racemosa Buch.-Ham. ex D.Don, Balsamina salicifolia Bojer ex Baker, Impatiens arcuata Benth., Impatiens balsamina var. corymbosa Santapau, Impatiens coccinea Sims, Impatiens cornuta L., Impatiens eriocarpa Launert, Impatiens lobbiana Turcz., Impatiens longifolia Wight, Impatiens malayensis Griff., Impatiens salicifolia Turcz., Impatiens sinensis Buch.-Ham. ex Benth., Impatiens stapfiana Gilg
Common name: Garden Balsam, Rose balsam, Spotted snapweed,
- Bengali: দোপাটি Dopati
- Chinese: 急性子
- Finnish: Mummonpalsami
- Gujarati: ગુલમેંદી Gulmendi
- Hindi: गुल मेहेंदी Gul-mehndi
- Kannada: ಕರ್ಣಮಮ್ಡಲ Karnamamdala
- Kashmiri: ततूर् Tatur
- Malayalam: തിലം ഓണപ്പു Thilam Oonappuu , Tilo-onapu
- Manipuri: Khujang lei
- Marathi: Chirdo, तेरडा Terada,
- Nepali: तिउरी Tiuree
- Oriya: Haragaura
- Russian: nedotroga bal'zaminovaja, недотрога бальзаминовая
- Sanskrit: दुष्परिजती Dushparijati, Tairini
- Tamil: காசித்தும்பை Kaci-t-tumpai, Aivartenkittumpai, Aivartyenki
- Telugu: ముద్ద గోరింత Mudda Gorinta , చిలకముక్కు పూవు Chilaka mukku puvvu, kaasithummi, Kasi tummi
- Urdu: مينہدي گل Gul-mehndi
- Vietnamese: cây bông móng tay
Description: Plants annual, 60-100 cm tall. Stem erect, robust, base ca. 8 mm in diam., succulent, simple or branched, glabrous or laxly pubescent when young, with many fibrous roots, lower nodes swollen. Leaves alternate, sometimes lowest ones opposite; petiole 1-3 cm, adaxially shallowly sulcate, both sides with few pairs of stipitate glands; leaf blade lanceolate, narrowly elliptic, or oblanceolate, 4-12 × 1.5-3 cm, with a pair of sessile black glands toward base, both surfaces glabrous or sparsely pubescent, lateral veins 4-7 pairs, base cuneate, margin deeply serrate, apex acuminate. Inflorescences 1-flowered, or 2 or 3 flowers fascicled in leaf axils, without peduncles. Pedicels 2-2.5 cm, densely pubescent, bracteate at base; bracts linear. Flowers white, pink, or purple, simple or double petalous. Lateral sepals 2, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 2-3 mm. Lower sepal deeply navicular, 13-19 × 4-8 mm, pubescent, abruptly narrowed into an incurved spur; spur 1-2.5 cm, slender. Upper petal orbicular, apex retuse, mucronulate, abaxial midvein narrowly carinate; lateral united petals shortly clawed, 2.3-2.5 cm, 2-lobed; basal lobes obovate-oblong, small; distal lobes suborbicular, apically retuse; auricule narrow. Stamens 5; filaments linear; anthers ovoid, apex obtuse. Ovary fusiform, densely pubescent. Capsule broadly fusiform, 1-2 cm, densely tomentose, narrowed at both ends. Seeds many, black-brown, globose, 1.5-3 mm in diam., tuberculate.
Traditional Medicinal Uses: A lotion of fresh leaves is used to treat eczema, itches and insect bites. In Vietnam, decoctions of leaves are used to stimulate growth and to wash hair. The juice is also used for warts, cancer treatment and expectorant. A decoction of flowers is taken for infections, vomiting, urine retention and as a tonic. In India, flowers are regarded as cooling, tonic and useful when applied to burns and scalds. The flowers are also used for lumbago and intercostal neuralgia, snakebite, improves circulation and relieves stasis. In Japan, juice squeezed from the white flower petals are applied on the skin to alleviate dermatitis. In China, the seeds are prescribed for difficult labour, puerperal pains, difficult menstruation, cough, hiccups and poisonings. The seeds are mixed with arsenious acid for removing teeth. In Malaysia, the seeds are taken for gastrointestinal tract cancer, and to dislodge fish or chicken bones in throat.
100 Published articles of Impatiens balsamina
