Pygmy Smartweed

Polygonum minus

Other Names : Polygonum minus, Persicaria minor, Kesum, pygmy smartweed, aka pygmy smartweed, Small water-pepper, Small water-pepper, Small smartweed, spotted lady's thumb, Kleiner Knöterich, Kleine duizendknoop, Cenohom, Daun Laksa

Special Precautions of Pygmy Smartweed

Other names for kesum are like Chinese Knotweed (English), Duo mao lio (China), Surudo kudami (Japan). However, it is a different species from Kesum in Malaysia.

Propeties

• P. minus extracts have also been reported to show the following activities: antioxidant, anti-HSV1, anti-vesicular stomatitis virus, anti-fungal, anti-ulcer,anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-acetylcholinesterase,antimicrobial, and cytotoxicity towards HeLa cells.
• Pharmacological studies on P. minor have indicated anti-oxidant, LDL oxidation, anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial activities, digestive enhancing and anti-ulcer activities, as well as cognitive enhancing activities. Comparative studies have been carried out to analyse the metabolites not only in the plant's leaves, but also in its stem and roots. Clinical studies have also been carried out on this plant, looking at its supposed cognitive indications.
• Other members of Polygonaceae have also been reported to show antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, cytotoxic, anti-angiogenic, and anticholinesterase activities.

Health benefits and Uses of Pygmy Smartweed

Persicaria minor is an edible herb. Compared with other four Malaysian herbs (Cosmos caudatus, Piper sarmentosum, Centella asiatica, Syzygium polyanthum), the Persicaria minor showed the highest concentration of phenols and the highest antioxidant activity.

• It is frequently used as vegetable salad and as flavouring enhancer in many dishes.
• Traditionally, the leaves have been used to treat skin fungal infection, indigestion, dandruff, postnatal tonic, sprains, and alleviating body aches.
• The fragrant nature of P. minus is due to its high contents (72.54%) of volatile aromatic oils, with at least 48 different essential oils identified Approximately 77 metabolites have been identified in P. minus by Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and these were mainly sesquiterpenes and aliphatic aldehyde compounds. The major essential oils were decanal (16.26%), 1-decanol (12.68%), and dodecanal (43.47%).The variation of dodecanal content among four different accessions of P. minus was reported to be about 10% (37.83–48.28%). The phytochemicals identified from P. minus include myricetin, quercetin, flavone, and methyl flavonol. P. minus methanolic extract was non-toxic to Sprague Dawley rats at a dosage of 2 g/kg and only caused moderate DNA strand breaks (16–31.4%) in lymphocytes at 250–2000 µg/mL.
• The n-hexane extract of P. minus leaf showed antimicrobial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.
• The water and methanol extracts of P. minus leaf showed antioxidant and acetylcholinesterase enzyme inhibition activities.
• The ethanolic extract of P. minus demonstrated the complete inhibition of 5-LOX and COX-1 activities at 100 µg/mL
• The aqueous extract also demonstrated anti-inflammatory activity in a rat animal model through the inhibition of carangeenan-induced paw oedema.
• The ethyl acetate (EA) fraction of P. minus was cytotoxic and capable of inducing apoptosis and S-phase cell-cycle arrest in HepG2 cells.
• In Malaysia and Singapore (where it has the common name "kesum"), the shoots and young leaves are eaten raw as part of salad (ulam); used as an aroma spice additive in peppery dishes such as laksa, nasi kerabu, asam pedas and tom yam;
• used as tea leaves
• used for topical applications : Its oil has been used for aromatherapy and in treatments for dandruff.
• In Malaysian traditional medicine, P. minor has been used in post-natal tonics and for treatment of digestion.
• It has been used as a bioactive component for packaging film for edible foods, based on a semi-refined carrageenan and glycerol as plasticizers.

Reference

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10942912.2017.1315591