Herbal Antibiotics: Natural Alternatives for Treating Drug-Resistant Bacteria (18 page)

Many of the sidas are typical-looking mallow-like plants with the usual five-lobed pale yellow to orange flowers. They get their name from the spreading or fanning of their flower petals. Some of the species are ground covers, while others grow into sturdy bushes as much as 6 feet (2 m) tall. They can be perennials, annuals, or biennials—and I am talking about the same plant here; they alter their behavior
depending on where they are growing and the climate. They are often considered wasteland weeds irrespective of the species.

Sida acuta
grows from 3 to 6 feet tall and may appear as either an annual or a perennial. It is a
potently
invasive medicinal wherever it gets established. In general, when the sidas get loose, they just keep on going, and they don't like to be controlled once they're established.

S. acuta
has a very deep and strong taproot that endures droughts, mowing, and tillage with impunity. The plant easily survives extensive foraging by animals. With age the stem gets tough and woody, which helps the plant resist the phytopolice who wish to send it back to Mexico. Once established, the plant is highly competitive, loves and spreads easily into disturbed ecosystems, and doesn't share or play well with others. It can be found as high as 5,000 feet (1,500 m) and is often found in pastures, wastelands, cultivated farmland, roadsides, lawns, forests, and any human-planted or disturbed environment. It grows well in clay soils and desert as well as your typical black humus and survives heavy rainfall as well as drought. The seeds (spinyhead) adhere well to clothing and animals, are picked up in mud on tires and shoes, hide in hay and grass bales, and germinate easily wherever they end up. They are very sharp and puncture the skin, and feet, with abandon.

Truly one of the great invasives.

Sida acuta
can be grown in much of the United States and should be cultivated wherever it can be. It has been reported in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Although it is said to grow most easily in zones 8 to 11, given that it grows in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, there is no reason it cannot grow throughout that region as well as in Northern California, Oregon, and the Olympic Peninsula and most likely other regions as well.

Sida cordifolia
grows in Alabama, Hawaii, Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sida rhombifolia
is widely distributed: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Sida spinosa
grows throughout those states and also in Connecticut, D.C., Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, West Virginia, and Ontario, Canada.

Sida acuta
is considered to be native to Mexico and Central America, but it has spread around the world with great abandon (the seeds are great hitchhikers—the Spanish colonizers in South America and Mexico took some with them everywhere they traveled). In Australia's northern territories biological control has been instituted to try to stop its spread, with only mixed success.

This species is common in China, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti—it's common throughout the entire Pacific Rim and Pacific Islands, in fact—India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burkina Faso, Togo, Nigeria, Kenya, Peru, western Colombia, Panama, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and other similar places and regions around the world. In most places where it has been introduced it is considered invasive and noxious and is often deeply disliked (the seeds, rather nasty, contribute to its poor reputation). It is considered a plant threat to Pacific ecosystems. However, in some regions (Florida) people grow it as an ornamental. Go figure.

Sida rhombifolia
is even more widespread than
S. acuta
. It is invasive throughout the Pacific Rim and Islands, Australia, and New Zealand. It is widely found in China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Indian Ocean chain, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Mexico.

Sida cordifolia
also grows widely throughout the Pacific Rim and Islands (invasive status) as well as in Japan, Taiwan, Australia, El Salvador, and Honduras.

Sida spinosa
is invasive throughout the Pacific Rim and Islands and grows widely in Japan, Australia, Chile, Peru, and Mexico.

Sida acuta
grows well from seed. In fact, its seeds are very hardy, with at least a 30 percent survival rate over several seasons of drought. Each plant produces several hundred seeds every year. They attach to any passing animal and drop off later to spread the plant even further. The seeds need a period of high temperature to break their seed coat and do best if there is a period of alternating high and low temperatures.

The seeds are collected in the fall and can be top-seeded where you want them to grow, with average watering.

Note:
Sida acuta
is as good at healing damaged land as it is ill people; it is exceptionally good at detoxifying polluted soils. It removes cadmium, lead, nickel, iron, zinc, cobalt, mercury, molybdenum, copper, manganese, arsenic, and chromium from industrially polluted or dump sites. It is particularly good at scavenging lead, zinc, iron, nickel, cadmium, chromium, molybdenum, and arsenic. The plant should
not
be harvested for medicine from such sites as it will contain high levels of heavy metals.

Sida acuta
(and several others in the genus) is one of the few medicinals known besides
Cryptolepis sanguinolenta
to contain cryptolepine. This is one of the more potent constituents in the plant. The plant, like
C. sanguinolenta
, also generates a number of cryptolepine derivatives: quindoline, quindolinone, cryptolepinone, and 11-methoxy-quindoline.

Other constituents include ecdysterone, beta-sitosterol, stig-masterol, ampesterol, evofolin A and B, scopoletin, loliolide,
4-ketopinoresinol, ephedrine, beta-phenethylamine, quinazoline, carboxylated tryptamine alkaloids, alpha-amyrin, hentriacontane, hypolaetin-8-glucoside, campesterol, heraclenol, acanthoside B, daucoglycoside, choline, betaine, trans-feruloyltyramine, vomifoliol, ferulic acid, sinapic acid, syringic acid, syringaresinol, vanillic acid, swainsonine, vasicine, vasicinol, vasicinone, and peganine.

The seeds of both
Sida acuta
and
Sida rhombifolia
contain numerous ecdysteroids including ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone.
Sida filicaulis
seeds contain lesser amounts. There is some indication that the plants, as opposed to the seeds, contain these compounds as well. This is the presumed source of the adaptogenic actions of the sidas when used as medicine.
Sida acuta
plants also contain alkaloids, flavonoids, steroids, tannins, cardenolides, polyphenols, terpenoids, and cardiac glycosides.

Sida acuta
and
Sida rhombifolia
contain a number of cyclopropenoid fatty acids.

The same alkaloids present in
Sida acuta
have been found in
Sida humilis
,
S. rhombifolia
, and
S. spinosa
.

Sida acuta
is widely used in traditional medicinal practice around the world to treat malaria, fevers, headache, skin diseases, infected wounds, diarrhea, dysentery, snake bites, asthma, GI tract problems, systemic infections. James Duke's database lists 12 species of sida that have been used in traditional medicine, all for a similar range of complaints. The heaviest hits occurred with
acuta
,
cordifolia
,
rhombifolia
, and
veronicaefolia
.
S. acuta
and
rhombifolia
are sometimes smoked in Mexico for their euphoric effects.

Various sida species have been used in India for over five thousand years; some species are native, others were introduced from the Americas. The primary species used is
Sida cordifolia,
but all are common
medicinals.
Sida acuta
is considered an invasive menace by some and listed as such in some government writings. Practitioners in India commonly use the various species interchangeably, which has led to calls for stricter identification of which sidas are being used and for what. Species commonly used are
S. acuta
,
S. carpinifolia
,
S. cordifolia
,
S. humilis
,
S. indica
,
S. rhombifolia
, and
S. spinosa.

Bala
is the primary term in Sanskrit for the main medicinal species—
acuta
and
cordifolia
—while lesser species are distinguished by a linguistic modification of that term:
S. carpinifolia
is
bala phani-jivika
,
S. rhombifolia
is
atibala
(or
mahabala
),
S. spinosa
is
nagabala
,
S. humilis
is
bhumibala
. However, every local ethnic group that uses the genus for medicine has its own local name for the plants. There are scores of them. The plants, again, are considered to be interchangeable for the most part in practice; the roots, leaves, seeds, and stems are all used.

Sida cordifolia
is considered to be cooling, astringent, stomachic, tonic, aromatic, bitter, febrifuge, demulcent, diuretic. The seeds are used as an aphrodisiac and to treat gonorrhea, cystitis, hemorrhoids, colic, and tenesmus. The leaves are used for strangury, hematuria, gonorrhea, cystitis, leukorrhea, chronic dysentery, nervous diseases, facial paralysis, and asthma, and as a cardiac tonic. They are cooked with rice and used for bloody diarrhea and bleeding hemorrhoids. An infusion of the roots is effective for nervous and urinary diseases and disorders of the blood and liver, while a decoction of the root (with ginger) is used for fever accompanied by cold shivering fits (essentially malarial fevers). The root juice is good for wounds, and an infusion of the dried root for bloody diarrhea, dandruff, and scalp problems. The juice of the plant is used for spermatorrhoea, rheumatism, and gonorrhea. All parts of the plant are used as a stomachic and cardiac tonic.

Sida acuta
is used as a diaphoretic and antipyretic and to treat fevers, dyspepsia, and lingering debility from previous illnesses. The juice of the root is used for intestinal worms, an infusion of the root for intermittent fever and chronic bowel complaints and for asthma, and the powdered root is made into a paste and applied to boils and
abscesses. The leaves are used as a demulcent and diuretic and to treat chronic diarrhea and dysentery, rheumatic conditions, and gonorrhea. It is a common food plant in some districts.

Sida rhombifolia
is used as a diuretic and aphrodisiac and to treat hemorrhoids, gonorrhea, rheumatism, kidney stones, fever, and scorpion sting. An infusion of the root is used for asthma.

Sida spinosa
is used for cooling fevers (as a decoction, 2x daily) and to treat gonorrhea, gleet, scalding urine, debility. It was used as a primary trauma medicine in Chhattisgarh, India, during the wars of the twentieth century. The leaf juice was used to stop bleeding, decrease pain, prevent infection, and hasten healing time.

Other Ayurvedic uses of sida include the treatment of eye problems (infections), sinusitis, cramps, joint pain, fracture, swelling, Parkinson's disease, colic, whooping cough, uterine problems, vaginal infection, bronchitis, TB, emaciation, and cystitis. All the sidas are used as veterinary medicine for treating diarrhea in farm animals throughout India.