Clitoria ternatea

Beauty of nature: Clitoria ternatea

The nature has so much ways to beautify itself. It creates flowers with uncountable variety and color.

Clitoria ternatea is also a beauty of nature. It is the flower of mainly blue color; this also has many other colors like white, purple etc.

Clitoria ternatea, common names including butterfly-pea (Australia);  blue-pea, cordofan-pea, honte (French);  blaue Klitorie (German);  clitoria-azul (Portugese);  azulejo, conchitis, papito, zapatico de la reina, zapotillo, conchita azul, campanilla, bandera, choroque, lupita, pito de parra, bejuco de conchitas (Spanish);  cunha (Brazil).

It is a plant species belonging to the Fabaceae family. The Fabaceae or Leguminosae, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family, is a large and economically important family of flowering plants. The group is the third largest land plant family, behind only the Orchidaceae and Asteraceae, with 730 genera and over 19,400 species.

Morphology

It is a perennial climber. Leaves- pinnate 5-9 folio late.

Flowers- showy, blue or white, petals unequal, style bearded below the stigma.

Fruits- pods, linear, compressed.

Seeds- 6-10, black (Flowers in rainy season and fruits in winter).

Introduced to:

Now widespread throughout humid and sub-humid lowlands of Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and more recently in semi-arid (600–800 mm) tropical Australia.

Native to:

Africa:  Angola, Angola-ISO, Benin, Burundi, Cabinda, Cameroon, Cape Verde Is, Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nigeria, Sao Tome, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Indian Ocean:  Mauritius.

External uses:

It alleviates swelling and pain. It has haemostatic action hence it is used in piles specially bleeding piles. Piles are cleaned with the decoction and the paste of whole plant is applied over it. Leaf juice is used as nasal drops in headache. Oil boiled with dhamasa is used for massage in rheumatoi4 arthritis..

Decoction is used for gargling in stomatitis and for cleaning wounds. It prevents pus formation. 

Internal uses 

Nervous system: 
It has a tranquillizing effect on the brain hence it is used in symptoms like syncope, vertigo and brain weakness.

Digestive system: 

It is an antiemetic. antidypsetic. mild-laxative and cholagogue Therefore it is used in emesis. dyspepsia, constipation jaundice and piles. Kapha and pitta work together in the lower part of the stomach.It is used in healing ulcers of pylorus duodenum etc.

Circulatory system: 

Being haemostatic and blood purifier, it is useful in haemorrhagic disorders and vatarakta. Hot infusion of dhamasa is given to prevent small pox.

Respiratory system: It is used in common cold, cough, asthma as it acts as an expectorant and reduces the irritation of respiratory organs. Besides this, whole plant is used for smoking. Decoction is used for gargling in throat manifestations

Butterfly Pea flowers as Food!

The flowers of blue peas are used as ingredients in many cuisines  in some of the Asian countries. The flowers are used for pigmentation of foods in some of the south east Asian countries like Thailand. In Burma the flowers are fried and served as food. In Malay cooking the water extract of the flower is used to color rice before cooking. In Thailand a syrupy extract made from the blue flowers are used as drink named 'nam dok anchan'. 

Soil requirements

Adapted to a wide range of soil types (from sands to heavy clays) of moderate fertility but is extremely well adapted to heavy clay alkaline soils, and especially on clay soils which are too shallow for leucaena (Leucaena leucocephala ).  Adapted to pH 4.5-8.7 but prefers medium to high pH .  Some suggested tolerance to salinity, but lower than, for example, siratro (Macroptilium atropurpureum ).

So, you can plan a Clitoria ternatea in your sweet home, outside of the window to beautify your home. It is also very helpful for your health.

References links:

http://www.tropicalforages.info/key/Forages/Media/Html/Clitoria_ternatea.htm

http://www.indianmedicinalplants.info/d3/

http://www.pixelshots.blogspot.com/2010/02/herbal-flowers-of-kerala-shankupushpam.html