Marsilea polycarpa

Hooker et Greville

Pepperwort

MarsileaceaeLeavesShootsScore: 14/100

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(c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)

iNaturalist · cc-by-nc-sa
(c) Reinaldo Aguilar, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)

What to Eat

Edible parts: Stem, Leaves, Fronds

Where to Find It

A tropical plant. It grows in rice fields.

Africa, Asia, Burkina Faso, Guyana, Indonesia, SE Asia, South America, West Africa,

Countries: United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Armenia, Angola, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Burkina Faso, Bahrain, Burundi, Benin, Brunei, Bolivia, Brazil, Bhutan, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Chile, Cameroon, China, Colombia, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Ecuador, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Georgia, French Guiana, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Indonesia, Israel, India, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Japan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Cambodia, Comoros, North Korea, South Korea, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Laos, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Myanmar, Mongolia, Mauritania, Mauritius, Maldives, Malawi, Malaysia, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Nepal, Oman, Peru, Philippines, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles, Sudan, Singapore, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, Suriname, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Syria, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Thailand, Tajikistan, Timor-Leste, Turkmenistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Taiwan, Tanzania, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Vietnam, Yemen, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

How to Identify

A tropical fern that grows in water, commonly found in rice fields.

Nutrition Score: 14/100

Part	Moisture	kJ	kcal	Protein	Vit A	Vit C	Iron	Zinc
Shoots	90	—	—	2.7	—	—	—	—

Medicinal Uses

It is eaten in India, Sri Lanka, and in Bangladesh. In China it is used as forage. It has a raw protein content of 3.3%. The plant is used traditionally in China for edema, skin injuries, snakebite, and inflammation. In Mymensingh District it is traditionally used to treat cough, headache, hypertension, sleep disorders, and respiratory diseases. It is combined with Nardostachys jatamansi and after development by Asima Chatterjee sold as an ayurvedic treatment for epilepsy called Ayush-56. However, Ayush-56 does not show encouraging results in treating the disease. It is also used as a phytoremediator of arsenic while growing with rice plants.

Notes

There are about 50-60 Marsilea species.

Names & Synonyms

Lepido, Mastuerzo, Sabeleccion, Simmangah, Simmange

References (3)

Kermath, B. M., et al, 2014, Food Plants in the Americas: A survey of the domesticated, cultivated and wild plants used for Human food in North, Central and South America and the Caribbean. On line draft. p 525
Omawale, 1973, Guyana's edible plants. Guyana University, Georgetown p 99
Pawera, L., et al, 2020, Wild Food Plants and Trends in Their Use: From Knowledge and Perceptions to Drivers of Change in West Sumatra, Indonesia, Foods. 2020, 9, 1240