Calendula off icinalis Linn.
Family Compositae; Asteraceae.
Habitat Throughout India; wild in Punjab.
English Pot-Marigold, Marigold; Calendula. Unani Zergtil. Siddha/Tamil Thulvkka Saamanthi.
Action Flowers—anti-inflammatory, antiseptic, stimulant, antispasmodic, emmenagogue, antihaemorrhagic, styptic. Used in gastric and duodenal ulcers and dysmenorrhoea; externally for cuts, bruises, burns, scalds. Plant—antiprotozoal. Flower— antimicrobial. Essential oil— antibacterial.
Key application In inflammation of the oral and pharyngeal mucosa, internally and externally. Externally, on poorly healing wounds, ulcuscruris. (German Commission E, WHO, ESCOB) Anti-inflammatory, vulnerary. (The British Herbal Pharmacopoeia.)
The flowers contain triterpenes, sterols, flavonoids, carotenes, bitter glycosides, resins, volatile oil, mucilage (do not contain tannins). Polysaccharides from flowers exhibited immunostimulating and antitumour activity in several in vitro test systems.
An alcoholic extract has been shown to have antitrichomonal activity.
Wound healing and anti-inflammatory properties are attributed to Mn and carotene. An aqueous alcoholic extract of florets showed CNS inhibitory effect with marked sedative activity in experimental animals.
The extract of flower-heads exhibited estrogenic activity (reduces period pains and regulates menstrual bleeding).
Calephione, the extract containing the total polyphenols of the inflorescence, has a marked choagogic effect
in rats and has been found helpful in the treatment of CCI4-induced hepatitis. A hypocholesterolaemic saponin has been extracted from the plant.