Dendrophthoe falcata (Dendrophthoe falcata)

Dendrophthoe falcata

''Dendrophthoe falcata'' is one of the hemiparasitic plants that belong to the ''Loranthaceae'' family of mistletoes. It is the most common of all the mistletoes that occur in India. At the moment reports say that it has around 401 plant hosts. The genus ''Dendrophthoe'' comprises about 31 species spread across tropical Africa, Asia, and Australia among which 7 species are found in India.

''D.falcata'' bears grey barks, thick coriaceous leaves variable in shape with stout flowers . The flowering inflorescences in D.falcata was previously referred to as axillary or as one developing on the scars of fallen leaves, but Y.P.S Pundir verified it to be of strictly cauliflorous nature and also notified that it shares fundamental similarity to that of ''Ficus glomerata, F. pomifera'' and ''F. hispida''. Two of its varieties are widespread in India namely, var. ''falcata'' and var. ''coccinea'' distinguished by occurrence of white and red flowering, respectively . To date, ''D.falcata'' represents the only known mistletoe with the largest global host range which is continuously and rapidly widening.

Uses

''Dendrophthoe falcata'' possesses remarkable potentials as a medicinal plant evident from the wound healing, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant, antinociceptive properties of its ethanolic extracts . Medicinal properties of this hemiparasite may vary in effects respective to different hosts it establishes a relation with .

The whole plant is used in indigenous system of medicine as cooling, bitter, astringent, aphrodisiac, narcotic and diuretic and is useful in treating pulmonary tuberculosis, asthma, menstrual disorders, swelling wounds, ulcers, renal and vesical calculi and vitiated conditions of kapha and pitta . Also, the decoction of plant used by women as an anti-fertility agent has been evidenced to possess anticancer activity . The leaf ethanolic extract significantly and dose dependently inhibits the acetic acid induced writhing in mice and has indicated a low level toxicity in the brine shrimp lethality assays. Besides, a more recent work by Pattanayak et al. shows significant tumor reduction in induced mammary carcinogenesis in Wistar female rats when fed with hydroalcoholic extracts of ''D. falcata''.

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Taxonomy
Kingdom	Plantae
Division	Angiosperms
Class	Eudicots
Order	Santalales
Family	Loranthaceae
Genus	Dendrophthoe
Species	D. falcata

Photographed in
India