Mimosa Pudica is a shrub that is also called a touch me not due to its sensory responsiveness. When encountered with physical touch, the leaves of this shrub curl inwards and droop which is the plant’s defense mechanism. The leaves reopen after a while. This shrub is commonly found in India, Tropical America, and Australia.
This plant has earned its status of a curiosity plant due to its unique movement patterns followed by the leaves. It also possesses a large number of healing qualities such as antidepressant, anti-venom, anti-bacterial, anti-fertile and aphrodisiac. This herb has been traditionally used to treat various diseases and ailments. However, according to early literature, this plant has been initially used not for its pharmaceutical properties, but by psychologists to understand the phenomenon of habituation.
The study of this plant can only be complete and comprehensive when a greater collaborative project can be done by the biologists and comparative psychologists with the aim of integrating studies relating to the mainstream behavior theory with regard to the Mimosa Pudica
The Psychological aspect
Research has been conducted on the Mimosa Pudica since the early 1960s and 1970s. In the early 1900s, it was found that this plant reacts to electrical stimulation as well and not just physical stimuli. Habituation was further deeply researched while experimenting on this plant which leads to different findings with regard to the shrub. An experiment with different types of external stimuli was conducted where the leaves refused to curl inward when a drop of water was administered but reacted at the touch of the human finger. This leads to the conclusions the habituation was not a result of fatigue and that the Mimosa Pudica may be able to differentiate between stimuli.
This plant has been recommended to be examined for learning studies with regard to organisms as well in addition to habituation. Sensitization is another aspect of plant psychology that can be inferred with the help of this shrub. The effect of external stimuli and the short term, long terms effects with regard to duration of stimuli are all factors related to sensitization that can be studied based on the Mimosa Pudica
The Medicinal effect
The Mimosa plant is used to treat Physical ailments as well as mental ailments due to its unique healing properties. It has proven to be healing for cuts, sinus, dysentery, urogenital disorders, and piles. It contains a lot of pharmaceutically valued components such as sterols, alkaloids, flavonoids, mimosine or non-protein amino acids, fatty acids, C-glycosides, terpenoids, and tanners.
Be it a swelling or a wound, the traditional way of treating this was the administered the wound with a paste made of the Mimosa Pudica. The plant paste was used to treat a variety of diseases in traditional herbal medicine and it also consumed in the form of juice to cure ailments such as asthma and Kidney pain. This blog post gives a useful insight with regard to the healing powers and uses of the Mimosa Pudica.
The Parasitic effect
This plant swells is classified a mucilaginous herb as it swells up when in contact with fluids. When consumed, the plant scrapes off parasites from the walls of the intestine and also detoxifies the colon. The gel form of this plant is not digested by the system and it also bulks up the stool in a similar manner to how fibers do.
The Antidepressant effect
The Mimosa Pudica is a truly rare plant due to its versatile and widespread healing properties. Alternative medicine is on the rise for troubles such as panic attacks, anxiety, and depression due to the lack of side effects. This plant extract is known for boosting up the mood and relieving people from mental ailments.
This plant additionally also regenerates the sciatic nerve which is the cause for one of the most devastating forms of pain. The sciatic nerve in the spinal cord radiates pain throughout the body and causes extreme pain. It is said that Mimosa Pudica has the power to regenerate the sciatic nerve and heal this pain. This plant is also known to raise the antioxidants present in the human body, thus providing a stronger immune system to the body.
The plant can also prevent liver damage. In most cases of parasitic infection, the bile duct is one of the prone areas of infection which results in lower production of bile after the infection. The Mimosa pudica was shown to prevent liver damage or extensively reduce it in such cases.