Mimosa Pudica (touch-me-not) medicinal uses and edibility

I started reading about an interesting plant that is common around here called Mimosa Pudica, known as "touch-me-not" because of its leaves that close upon touching.

It seems to be a plant with valuable medicinal uses, amongst them antibacterial properties^[1], anti-anxiety/depression properties^[2], inhibiting effect of Naja snake poison^*[3], anti-arthritic properties^[4], list could go on (i.e.: use as laxative, inhibitor of tumor growth).

It’s also known that it contains toxic mimosine and parts of the plant contains calcium oxalate, but I haven’t found evidence of acute toxicity of the plant.

I'm interested in the use of the plant as a survival aid, both as a medicine and as an edible if possible, so my questions are:

• Is the Mimosa Pudica a safe plant to regularly drink teas from, despite the presence of mimosine and calcium oxalate? If not, what preparation steps should be taken to avoid intoxication, or what dosage should not be surpassed?

• What about dermal application of ethanol/water extracts of the plant as a antibacterial/pain-relief herb for wounds? In this case, I don't think the calcium oxalate would be an issue, but I'm not sure about the mimosine.

• Does the plant have some nutritional value besides the medicinal uses?

I don't mean to make the questions too scientific, they are just a guideline, what I'm looking for is information about how to use the plant for survival, so any information regarding this is really appreciated!

_{Obs: If the community believes the question is more appropriate in Biology SE I can write it there. My choice of The Great Outdoors has to do with the survivalism/wild living approach. For example, there are laboratory studies of extracts of the plant, but I’m only interested in the ones that are practical enough for a survival situation.}

_{* The articles I found used the pre-incubation method, which exposes the venom to the extract before application. Probably it isn't as effective being applied/consumed after the bite, but in an emergency every effort to buy some time prior to medical treatment seems reasonable (as long as it doesn't cause issues with the latter).}

References:

[1] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289494930_Antibacterial_activities_of_the_extracts_of_Mimosa_pudica_L_An_in-vitro_study

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5206927/pdf/AJP-6-696.pdf

[3] http://www.scielo.br/pdf/jvatitd/v17n1/06.pdf

[4] https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b357/bcfef8efeac5e5fcc7e7df37d9acc17ee01b.pdf

posted almost 5 years ago

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IanC‭

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