About Porophyllum punctatum (Mill.) S.F.Blake
Porophyllum punctatum (Mill.) S.F.Blake is a much-branched, hairless perennial shrub with extreme size variation, and can reach up to 4 meters (around 13 feet) in height. Leaves on its stems typically grow in opposite arrangements. Leaf blades are up to 3 centimeters (around 1 1/5 inches) long and 2.4 centimeters (around 1 inch) wide, with petioles up to 1.2 centimeters (around 1/2 inch) long. Leaf blades are variable in shape, and usually bear 2 to 7 oil-bearing glands on each side of the margin, plus one terminal gland at the leaf tip, which can be either sharp or rounded. Glands may also sometimes be scattered across the surface of the leaf blade. Inflorescences range from cymose, where the central flower in the inflorescence is the oldest and blooms first, and later flowers grow on side branches, to corymbose, where the inflorescence is flat-topped or slightly rounded because lower flower stalks are longer than upper ones. The flowering heads have five involucral bracts. Each head contains 15 to 30 florets with pale to purple corollas. The one-seeded, cypsela-type fruits are up to 8.1 millimeters long and are crowned with purplish to straw-colored pappuses; each bristle of the pappus has very short hairlike projections. In Mexico, Porophyllum punctatum grows in disturbed areas within tropical deciduous and semi-deciduous forests, at elevations below 500 meters (around 1650 feet). In traditional Yucatec Mexican medicine, both leaf infusions and leaf decoctions of Porophyllum punctatum are consumed to treat kidney problems; lemon leaves are sometimes added to the boiling water when preparing decoctions. In the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, people bathe in water from the plant's decoction to treat the effects of the evil eye, called mal de ojo. Other reported traditional uses across different locations include stopping nosebleeds, treating gonorrhea, chronic ulcers, mange, ringworm, cold sweats in children, and night sweats not caused by heat. In Mexico, the plant is also used to kill lice.
