Common name: Cow-Foot Leaf
Botanical name:Piper umbellatum L. Piper umbellatum
Family: Piperaceae (Pepper family)
Cow-Foot Leaf is an erect, somewhat woody plant, 1-2 m tall. Leaves are membranaceous with prominent, glandular, brown to black dots beneath, broadly ovate to suborbicular-ovate, 17-37 cm long, 15-32 cm wide, the base subpeltate, multiplinerved and equilaterally deeply heart-shaped, the tip with a pointed tip, somewhat hairy on the nerves on both surfaces, and the margins ciliate. Leaf-stalks are very long, more or less hairy, 11.5-27.5 cm long. Spikes are numerous, umbellate, axillary, hermaphroditic, 5.5-12 cm long, 2-3.5 mm in diameter. Rachis is smooth. Bracts are stalked, peltate, about 1 mm long, with semilunar, triangular disk. Fruit is free, crowded, obovoid-trigonous, 0.75-1 mm long, about 0.5 mm in diameter, glandular, with the apex truncate and umbonate. Stigmas are cuspidate. Stamens are two, 0.2 mm long and with very short stalks. Cow-Foot Leaf is native to South America, naturalized in many parts of the world.
Medicinal uses: In the Philippines, fresh leaves are applied on the surface of abscesses as topicals. Juice of leaves applied to eyes for conjunctivitis. In French Guiana, plant is used as remedy for tapeworms. In other countries, used as antiscorbutic and diuretic.
