Vallisneria SPIRALIS L.
| Synonym : | Vallisneria aethiopica Fenzl Vallisneria micheliana Spreng. Vallisneria michelii Savi Vallisneria |
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| Bangla Name : | Baicha, Bicha, Patajhangi, Patseola. |
| English Name : | Eel-grass, Tape-grass, Wild Celery. |
| Family : | Hydrocharitaceae |
| Disease : | Refrigerant, demulcent, leucorrhoea and stomachic. |
| Description : | A fully submerged, tufted, stemless, stoloniferous, dioecious herb. Leaves radical, narrow, linear, varying in length with depth of the water, reaching sometimes 37.5 cm, translucent. Male flowers numerous, minute, spathe shortly pedunculate, 6 mm long, break off at the base when the flowers emerge and float on the water surface. Female flowers solitary, spathe 3-toothed, carried to the water surface in flower by uncoiling of the long filiform spiral scape. Fruit linear, included in the spathe. |
| Distribution : | All over the country, common in fresh water tanks, lakes, ponds and haors. |
| Chemical Constituents : | The plant is rich in lipids, particularly phospholipids, which include phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidyl-ethanolamine, phosphatidyl-glycerol and phosphatidylinositol. Stolons are rich in starch (Ghani, 2003). |
| Uses : | The plant is considered to be refrigerant, demulcent and stomachic, used in the treatment of leucorrhoea. |
| Habit : | Herb |