Phyllanthus fraternus

What to Eat

Edible parts: Fruit, Leaves

The tender young leaves, shoots, and fruit are eaten raw or cooked, boiled or fried.

Known Hazards

Where to Find It

It is a subtropical plant.

Africa, Asia, Botswana, Burkina Faso, India, Northeastern India, West Africa,

How to Identify

A small herb. It grows each year from seeds. The branches are angled. The leaves are compound with leaflets along the stalk that do not have leaflet stalks. The flowers are small and under the leaf stalk. The fruit are small and round.

How to Grow

The plant tolerates dry conditions but does not survive in waterlogged conditions. A widespread weed of roadsides, cultivated land and waste places.

Medicinal Uses

The leaves are strongly diuretic. A decoction is drunk to facilitate childbirth, and against oedema, costal pain and fever. In Sudan the leaves are given against dysentery. The young leaves are given to children as a treatment for coughs and hiccups. A plant extract is reported to be strongly diuretic and is taken to allay spasms, such as griping in dysentery. The plant is also used as a laxative and to treat gonorrhoea, dropsy, diarrhoea and malaria. The plant extract is applied externally to treat skin infections. The plant sap is applied to treat bruises, sores and ulcers, and mixed with oil against ophthalmia and conjunctivitis. The fruits are used in the treatment of ulcers, wounds, sores, scabies, ringworm and other skin problems. Fresh roots are taken against jaundice, and crushed with milk are used as a galactagogue. A decoction of roots and leaves is used to treat malaria. Powdered roots and leaves are made into a poultice with rice-water to treat oedema and ulcers. In India Phyllanthus fraternus, in a mixture with other Phyllanthus spp., is sold in a herbal medicine called 'Bhumyamlaki', which is widely used against jaundice and is considered acrid, carminative, cooling and useful in the treatment of thirst, bronchitis, asthma, leprosy, anaemia, venereal diseases, problems of the genito-urinary tract, anuria, biliousness and hiccups. The lignans phyllanthin and hypophyllanthin have been isolated from the leaves, but some reports indicate that this may be due to confusion with Phyllanthus amarus. The leaves also contain the lignans niranthin, nirtetralin and phyltetralin. Other compounds isolated from the plant include alkamides, a quinolizidine alkaloid, the flavone tricin, triterpenoids, the tetraterpenoid phyllanthusone, and waxes. An alcohol extract of the root contained the seco-sterols phyllanthosterol, phyllanthosecosteryl ester, phyllanthostigmasterol and fraternusterol. The seed oil contains ricinoleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid. The two isolated alkamides possessed moderate antiplasmodial activity in vitro. An aqueous extract of the plant showed protection against the effect of chronic alcohol consumption on the liver. The decrease in cytochrome content of the cells was partly undone by the extract. A root extract of plants from Sudan showed high toxicity to Bulinus and Biomphalaria snails, but the plant extracts are also poisonous to frogs and fish.

Other Uses

A black dye is obtained from the stem and leaves. It is used to dye cotton, and can also be used as an ink.

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