A very large annual herb, with a prostrate spreading stem reaching 30 to 40 feet in length, stout, tough, becoming wood below, angular, pale green, thickly set with coarse, harsh, more or less bristly hairs, slightly branched. Leaves numerous, alternate, on long hispid striated petioles, large, sometimes a foot in diameter, broadly cordate-ovate, more or less deeply 5-lobed, the lobes either obtuse, rounded, or acute, entire or toothed, dark green, often mottled with white, very hispid on both surfaces; tendrils long, slender, un-branched or palmate.

The seeds are diuretic, tonic, vermifuge, anthelmintic and influences muscle contractility of the frog heart (in vivo and in vitro).

Plants for a Future

Linolenic acid, oleic acid, Vitamin A (fruit); sterols and triterpenoids (seed oil).

Strangury, urinary affections and gonorrhea (plant); neuralgia and migraine (seed oil). As a remedy for intestinal tapeworms and roundworms , the seeds are less potent than the root of Dryopteris felix-mas, but safer for pregnant women, debilitated patients and children. The oil from the seed is used as a nerve tonic. The fruit pulp is used as a soothing poultice on burns, inflammations and boils.

Chandel et al., Biodiversity in Medicinal and Aromatic Plants in India.