Every year, when as kids we would see our mother disappear into the kitchen garden with a bamboo basket looking to pick all the natural available green plants, we would make nasty comments on how she intends to feed us goat’s fodder. According to the traditional Assamese practice of eating and detoxing naturally, a combination of various edible leaves/wild plants are cooked for a meal as Spring approaches. The combination of green leaves includes ferns and shoots of plants like fiddlehead fern, heartleaf, pennywort, skunk vine, elephant ear, and a lot more (The list of the names of the indigenous plants are never-ending). Among the many leaves, the one which was a must was the hogweed plant or the ‘punarnava’ in Sanskrit and Hindi. It is called by different names in different languages. In Tamil, the plant is identified as mookirattai , in Telugu it is called atikamamidi . In the glossary of Ayurvedic plants, hogweed plant is classified as a suitable herb to cure many ailments.
As I sat and read about it and thought I should exhibit this newly gained knowledge to my house help, she replied, “I send a bunch of this plant every week to my brother who is suffering from kidney ailments. My neighbour introduced me to this plant, since she supposedly stopped going for dialysis after the regular use of this plant.”
My know-how ended there and I got back to reading about this widely dispersed plant that grows very easily throughout India and needs no care. Interestingly, growing this wild plant in a pot is not an easy task. It grows best in the open on its own. It also bears sticky seeds that grow a few inches off the ground as well as beautiful pink flowers.
Here’s how to identify the plant: It is a spreading perennial herb, with a stout root-stock and many erect or spreading branches. It grows up to two meters in length. The leaves of the plant are simple, broad, somewhat rough, thick and brittle.
Punarnava means new birth, and many feel the plant is rightly named so, as it is believed to bring back vigour and vitality. Many Ayurveda experts call it the miracle herb, for its health benefits. This plant is best identified by its flowers. Even though it has a slight bitterness, the entire plant is edible.
Nowadays, detox is getting very popular, but I can confidently say that the punarnava is ideal for detoxing as it flushes out toxins from the body.
According to other available documents on the plant, punarnava is supposedly useful for treating all disorders of the kidneys, as it reduces urea levels in the body very effectively.
