Maman Pasir:
The Weed That
Was Never
Just a Weed.
Cleome rutidosperma grows on every disturbed patch of Malaysian soil. Most people have never given it a second look. A study published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture tested five Malaysian under-utilised vegetables and found that maman pasir had the highest total flavonoid content of all five — and the highest antioxidant activity. A published pharmacological study confirmed significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic activity. It has been eaten as a vegetable across Malaysia, Indonesia, and West Africa for generations. It is still right there. On the roadside. Waiting.
This plant embodies the Wrong Default more completely than almost anything else on this site. It was not removed from the Malaysian diet by industrialisation. It was never fully incorporated in the first place — even though it grows freely everywhere, costs nothing, and has been eaten as a vegetable across Southeast Asia and West Africa for as long as anyone has documented it.
The Orang Asli knew it. Traditional communities across Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, and the Congo identified it as both food and medicine — independently, across three continents, without any shared knowledge system. The science is now beginning to explain why. The flavonoid levels are among the highest of any edible plant tested in this region. The pharmacological evidence for its analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activity is real and published. It is not an exotic plant. It is growing outside your window right now, most likely.
Before the botany, the names, or the recipes — here is what the research actually found.
- A Malaysian study testing five under-utilised indigenous vegetables found that maman pasir (Cleome viscosa / C. rutidosperma) had the highest total flavonoid content of all five at 39.99 g CE/kg dried weight — and the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity at 82.2%. This is not a marginal result. It is the highest in the tested group, and the group included established edible wild plants.
- The essential oil extracted from Cleome rutidosperma aerial parts contains 83.23% eucalyptol — the same primary compound in pharmaceutical eucalyptus preparations used for respiratory conditions, pain relief, and antimicrobial applications. The same compound. In a roadside weed.
- In Jamaica, it is called “consumption weed” — named for its traditional use in treating tuberculosis. The essential oil study found it showed moderate inhibitory activity against Mycobacterium marinum NAT — an enzyme relevant to mycobacterial infections. Traditional knowledge and laboratory science pointed to the same target.
- A published pharmacological study (Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2007) found that oral administration of the ethanolic extract of Cleome rutidosperma produced significant analgesic activity in two independent pain tests, significant anti-inflammatory effect against carrageenan-induced inflammation, and antipyretic activity against yeast-induced fever. These are the standard tests used to evaluate pharmaceutical analgesics and anti-inflammatories.
- In vitro antiplasmodial activity against Plasmodium falciparum — the malaria parasite — has been documented. Traditional use for malaria across West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia now has a laboratory confirmation of mechanism. The plant was not wrong about what it was treating.
What This Plant Actually Looks Like — So You Can Find It
Cleome rutidosperma is an annual herbaceous plant, meaning it completes its entire life cycle within one year and grows from seed each season. It is erect to slightly spreading, widely branched from the base, and grows between 25 and 100 centimetres tall — roughly knee to waist height depending on conditions.
Leaves: Alternate and trifoliolate — meaning each leaf is divided into three separate leaflets joined at a central point, like a three-fingered hand. The petiole (leaf stalk) can grow up to several centimetres. Leaflets are oval to lance-shaped with slightly toothed margins. Leaves have a mildly pungent smell when crushed.
Flowers: Small and distinctive, with four petals in shades of purple to violet-lilac, sometimes described as pinkish-purple. The long, protruding stamens give the flower its characteristic spider-leg appearance — which is how the common name “spider flower” was earned. Flowers are bisexual and regular. They are produced continuously along the stem as the plant matures, appearing from lower to upper nodes.
Seed pods: Long, narrow, cylindrical pods (siliques) that extend on a stalk, typically 3 to 5 centimetres long. When mature, the pods split open to release the seeds. The pods are ridged and characteristic once you learn to recognise them.
Seeds: Small, brown to dark, with a distinctive wrinkled or fringed surface — which gives the species its name, rutidosperma, meaning “wrinkled seed” in Latin. The seeds are numerous and scattered widely when pods split, which is why the plant spreads so readily.
Overall habit: The plant has a slightly sprawling, much-branched form that can cover a patch of disturbed ground densely. The purple flowers and the distinctive three-leaflet pattern are the most reliable field identification features in Malaysia.
Where to Find It in Malaysia
Cleome rutidosperma is considered one of the most common roadside plants in Malaysia. It thrives in disturbed and ruderal environments — the ecological term for land that has been cleared, cultivated, or otherwise disrupted by human activity. In practice, this means you will find it:
- Along roadsides and highway verges
- On vacant lots and cleared land
- At the edges of paddy fields and plantations
- In open waste ground and neglected gardens
- Along drain banks and path edges
- In forest clearings and secondary growth areas
It prefers hot, humid climates and full sun, making the Malaysian lowlands an ideal habitat. It grows from sea level to moderate elevations. It is found across Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak, and is extremely common in West Malaysia. In Indonesia, it has established widely across Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, and the Lesser Sunda Islands.
The plant is native to West Africa and is now naturalised across the tropical belt — Southeast Asia, South Asia, tropical Americas, West Indies, and Australia. It arrived in Southeast Asia through the movement of people and goods along historical trade routes, and found the climate so congenial that it now grows as though it has always been here.
One Plant. Recognised Independently on Three Continents.
The number of local names this plant has accumulated across its range is itself evidence of how widely it has been noticed, used, and valued by traditional communities. Every culture that encountered it gave it a name — and usually a use.
Primary Malay name. Also called maman ungu (purple maman) and simply maman. Maman refers to the broader Cleome genus in traditional Malay usage.
The primary English common name. References both the fringed seed surface (rutidosperma) and the spider-leg appearance of the long stamens. Also simply “spider flower” or “purple cleome.”
Zhòu zi bái huā cài — literally “wrinkled-seed white flower vegetable.” The name acknowledges both the distinctive seed texture and its culinary use as a vegetable.
Philippine name, documented in Philippine alternative medicine literature. The plant is known across the archipelago, particularly in Luzon and the Visayas regions.
Named for its traditional use in treating tuberculosis (formerly called consumption). A striking example of traditional knowledge that has since attracted pharmacological investigation.
Neelavela in Telugu-speaking regions; Hurhure or Hurhur in West Bengal. Widely used in Indian traditional medicine particularly for skin conditions and as an analgesic.
The Yoruba name. In Nigeria, the plant is used in folk therapy — a decoction of aerial parts used to manage skin rashes, aching legs, and ear infections.
Lovanga in Cameroon; Musambe in Brazilian Portuguese. Nanjinda in Ghana; Dougo dougo in Gabon; Batina-ba-baku in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The plant has more local names than most botanists have time to catalogue.
You Have Walked Past It. The Orang Asli Did Not.
To the Orang Asli and rural Malay communities, maman pasir was not a weed. It was food that did not require cultivation — and that is a profoundly different relationship with a plant. A plant that grows freely wherever the ground is disturbed, requires no planting or tending, and provides edible leaves and pharmacologically active compounds is not a weed. It is a gift from the default diet that the modern world reclassified as a nuisance.
In traditional Malay and indigenous communities, the young leaves and shoots of maman pasir were harvested from the ground, boiled to reduce bitterness, and eaten alongside rice — exactly as a green vegetable. They were also added to soups and clear broths, where their slightly bitter, pungent character contributed both flavour and nutrition. In parts of West Africa where the plant is equally common, it is gathered from the wild, sold in local markets, and sometimes deliberately cultivated in kitchen gardens because of its value as a free-standing source of nutrition and medicine.
The Wrong Default asks: what did the body always expect that the modern world quietly removed? Maman pasir is a more complex answer. It was never formally removed from the Malaysian diet. It was simply reclassified — from food to weed — as the formal food economy expanded and wild harvesting declined. The plant did not change. The classification did. And with it, an entire nutritional and pharmacological resource was abandoned on the roadside.
How Maman Pasir Has Been Used as Food — Across Three Continents
The culinary use of Cleome rutidosperma is one of the strongest endorsements any plant can receive — not because of a single culture’s tradition, but because multiple cultures across Malaysia, Indonesia, West Africa, India, and the Philippines arrived at the same conclusion: the young leaves are edible, nutritious, and worth eating.
Nine Ways Maman Pasir Is Used as Food — Including the Regional Malaysian Dishes
Maman pasir is not just foraged and boiled. In the northern states of Peninsular Malaysia it is pickled and cooked in rendang. In the south it goes into masak lemak cili api. These are proper regional dishes — not curiosities, not survivalist recipes. They are part of the culinary identity of the states where maman pasir has always been recognised as food rather than weed.
Pickled maman pasir — a preserved condiment from Kedah, Perlis, and Perak.
In the northern states, young maman pasir shoots are prepared as jeruk — a traditional Malay pickling method using salt, sugar, and vinegar or tamarind. The shoots are lightly blanched, cooled, then submerged in the pickling liquid for several days. The result is a pleasantly sour, slightly bitter condiment served alongside rice as a substitute for vegetables. The pickling significantly reduces the raw bitterness while preserving the mineral and flavonoid content. This is not a fringe practice — jeruk maman is a recognised preparation in the kampung kitchens of northern Peninsular Malaysia, made the same way paku, pegaga, or papaya shoots are pickled.
Maman pasir cooked rendang-style — a dry, spiced preparation from northern Peninsular Malaysia.
In Kedah, Perlis, and parts of Perak, maman pasir leaves and shoots are cooked rendang-style — simmered in coconut milk with rempah (spice paste including galangal, lemongrass, chilli, shallots, and turmeric) until the liquid reduces and the spices caramelise around the maman. The result is dry, intensely flavoured, and eaten in small amounts alongside plain rice. The bitterness of the maman plays well against the richness of the coconut and the warmth of the spice paste — the same role bitter gourd plays in rendang preparations elsewhere. The fat from the coconut milk also improves absorption of the fat-soluble compounds in the plant, including the terpenoids and fat-soluble flavonoid fractions.
Maman pasir in coconut gravy with bird’s eye chilli — the southern signature dish.
In Johor and Negeri Sembilan, masak lemak cili api is the cooking style that defines the kitchen. Maman pasir is one of the traditional vegetables used in this preparation — cooked in a thin, vibrantly yellow coconut milk gravy built from bird’s eye chilli, turmeric, lemongrass, and galangal. The gravy’s heat and the turmeric’s bitterness complement the maman’s natural bitter notes rather than fighting them. The result is a light but intensely flavoured dish where the maman pasir’s slightly pungent character reads as a positive contribution rather than a liability. This dish is the southern counterpart to the northern rendang preparation — two distinct regional culinary traditions independently recognising the same plant as kitchen-worthy. The coconut milk base, as with rendang, improves absorption of fat-soluble phytonutrients.
The most common method across all cultures that use it — and the simplest starting point.
Young leaves and tender shoots harvested, washed, and boiled in lightly salted water for 3 to 5 minutes. The first water is often discarded to reduce bitterness, then the leaves are boiled briefly again. Served simply alongside rice with sambal or a squeeze of lime. In West Africa this is the primary preparation — boiled shoots eaten as a green vegetable, often mixed with other greens. The cooked leaf has a texture similar to spinach and a mildly bitter, slightly pungent flavour.
Very young leaves eaten raw as ulam alongside sambal belacan or budu.
The Orang Asli and rural Malay communities ate maman pasir as ulam. The bitterness is more pronounced when raw, so only the youngest leaves and shoot tips are selected. Eaten with a strong sambal or salty condiment, the bitterness becomes a flavour note rather than a barrier. This raw preparation preserves the maximum vitamin C, flavonoids, and heat-sensitive compounds — making it the highest-nutrient delivery method of any preparation on this list.
Blanched then stir-fried over high heat with crushed garlic and seasoning.
Blanch young leaves briefly for 1 minute to reduce bitterness, drain and squeeze dry. Heat oil in a wok, add crushed garlic (crush first, wait 10 minutes for allicin to form — see the garlic article), then add the maman pasir and stir-fry over high heat for 2 minutes. Season with salt, a splash of soy sauce, and dried shrimps if desired. This pairs the pharmacological profiles of two AJHerbs.com plants in one dish.
Add young leaves in the last 2 minutes only — never earlier.
The slight bitterness of maman rounds the flavour of a clear broth or sup. Add at the very end — the leaves wilt within minutes and prolonged cooking increases bitterness significantly. In parts of Indonesia and the Philippines the leaves are added to coconut-based soups and light curries in the same way.
Finely shredded young leaves stirred into bubur in the last 5 minutes.
The congee method reduces bitterness significantly because the plant material is distributed through a large volume of mild porridge. One of the most practical methods for the elderly, recovering patients, or anyone who wants the nutritional benefit without the full intensity of the flavour. The warm starchy base also helps with the bioavailability of fat-soluble compounds.
Dried seeds ground and used as flour or added to mixed grain preparations.
Documented in West Africa. Seed composition: 11.73% protein, 74.43% carbohydrates, 7.20% fat. The entire plant — from leaf to seed — is edible. Less common in Malaysia but a nutritionally real dimension of a plant most Malaysians consider entirely without value.
What Is Actually in the Plant — and What Each Compound Does
The Dominant Bioactive Class — and the Highest of Any Malaysian Vegetable Tested
Total flavonoid content of 39.99 g CE/kg dried weight — the highest of five Malaysian under-utilised vegetables tested (Journal of Science of Food and Agriculture, 2015). Flavonoids are responsible for the antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, anticonvulsant, and antidiabetic activities documented in the Cleome genus. In purple cleome specifically, flavonoids are the primary bioactive class.
83.23% of the Essential Oil
The dominant compound in the aerial essential oil, identified by GC-MS analysis. Eucalyptol is the same primary compound in pharmaceutical eucalyptus oil — used medically for respiratory conditions, as an antimicrobial agent, and as an analgesic and anti-inflammatory. Its presence explains multiple traditional uses including respiratory treatment, ear infection management, and skin application. Also showed inhibitory activity against Mycobacterium marinum NAT.
Anticonvulsant & Anticancer Activity
Phytochemical screening consistently detects alkaloids across all parts of the plant — leaves, stems, seeds. Alkaloids are documented as negative regulators of oncogenes and positive regulators of tumour suppressor genes, contributing to the anticancer potential noted in laboratory studies. Also implicated in the anticonvulsant activity documented in the traditional use for epilepsy and convulsions.
Antimicrobial & Wound Healing
Tannins contribute to the antimicrobial and wound-healing activity through their astringent, protein-precipitating properties that inhibit bacterial enzyme activity. Saponins exhibit membrane-disrupting activity against microbial cells and contribute to the plant’s documented activity against fungal species. Found in leaves, stems, and seeds.
Antioxidant & Anti-Inflammatory
Identified alongside eucalyptol in the essential oil. Phytol is a diterpene alcohol with documented antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activity. It is also a precursor to vitamin E (tocopherol) and vitamin K1 (phylloquinone) in biosynthetic pathways. Contributes to the overall antioxidant profile that makes this plant pharmacologically interesting beyond its flavonoid content.
Anti-Inflammatory & Antiplasmodial
Steroids and terpenoids are detected in seed and aerial extracts. Terpenoids include compounds with documented antiplasmodial activity — relevant to the traditional use of the plant for malaria across West Africa and Southeast Asia. Phytosterols present in the seed fraction contribute additional anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity. The antiplasmodial activity documented in vitro is at least partly attributed to this class.
What the Research Has Confirmed — and What Is Still Preclinical
Significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic activity confirmed in the standard pharmacological test battery for pain and fever.
This is the most important study in the Cleome rutidosperma literature. Oral administration of the ethanolic extract at 200 and 400 mg/kg, and its fractions at 200 mg/kg each, produced the following results in animal models:
Analgesic: Significant reduction in acetic acid-induced writhing (a standard visceral pain model) and in tail immersion tests (a thermal pain model). These are the same test protocols used to evaluate pharmaceutical analgesics including NSAIDs and opioids.
Anti-inflammatory: Significant reduction in carrageenan-induced paw oedema (acute inflammation model) and significant effect against adjuvant-induced polyarthritis (a chronic inflammation model). The effect against the chronic arthritis model is notable — many compounds that work in acute inflammation fail in the chronic model.
Antipyretic: Significant reduction of yeast-induced fever. Fractionation of the ethanolic extract potentiated all three activities — suggesting the active compounds are being concentrated upon fractionation rather than diluted.
Highest flavonoid content and highest antioxidant activity of five Malaysian under-utilised indigenous vegetables tested.
Five Malaysian wild vegetables consumed by indigenous communities were analysed for nutritional content, total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, and antioxidant activity. Maman pasir had the highest total flavonoid content at 39.99 g CE/kg dried weight and the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity at 82.2%. All five vegetables were also high in vitamin C and β-carotene. This is a peer-reviewed comparative study, not a claim made by a supplement company. The result places maman pasir at the top of its tested class for antioxidant capacity in a Malaysian context.
In vitro antiplasmodial activity against Plasmodium falciparum documented.
Cleome rutidosperma extracts demonstrated in vitro activity against Plasmodium falciparum — the malaria parasite responsible for the most severe form of human malaria. This study provides laboratory evidence for the traditional use of the plant for malaria across West Africa and parts of Southeast Asia. This is preclinical evidence only — in vitro results against malaria parasites do not directly translate to clinical efficacy in humans. But the mechanism is real and the traditional knowledge that led researchers to test it was not wrong.
Broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi, including clinically relevant pathogens.
Aqueous and petroleum ether extracts of Cleome rutidosperma have demonstrated antimicrobial activity against: Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Candida albicans, and Rhizopus nigricans. GC-MS analysis identified eucalyptol (83.23% of the essential oil) as the likely primary contributor to the antimicrobial activity. These are laboratory studies — achieving therapeutic concentrations through dietary use is a different question.
Highest of five Malaysian indigenous vegetables tested. JSFA 2015 peer-reviewed study. High radical scavenging means effective neutralisation of free radicals linked to inflammation and aging.
Highest total flavonoid content of the five vegetables tested. Flavonoids are responsible for the analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, anticonvulsant, and antidiabetic activities.
GC-MS confirmed 83.23% eucalyptol in the aerial essential oil — the same pharmaceutical compound used for respiratory, antimicrobial, and analgesic applications.
No cultivation required. No cost. Grows on roadsides, vacant lots, forest edges, and disturbed land across all of Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo. Already there.
What Is True, What Is Overstated, and What Most People Simply Never Knew
“Maman pasir is just a weed — it has no nutritional value.”
A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture (2015) tested five Malaysian under-utilised indigenous vegetables for nutritional content, flavonoids, phenolics, and antioxidant activity. Maman pasir had the highest total flavonoid content of all five (39.99 g CE/kg) and the highest DPPH radical scavenging activity (82.2%). It is also high in vitamin C and β-carotene. This plant is not nutritionally empty. It is nutritionally outstanding by the metrics that matter most for functional health. The “weed” classification is an agricultural and cultural judgement, not a nutritional one.
“Traditional claims about this plant are just folk belief with no scientific basis.”
Traditional uses of Cleome rutidosperma for pain, fever, inflammation, skin infections, and malaria have all attracted pharmacological research — and the research has repeatedly found supporting evidence. The analgesic and anti-inflammatory claims were confirmed in a published pharmacological study using standard pharmaceutical test protocols. The antiplasmodial claim (malaria) was confirmed in vitro. The antimicrobial claims are supported by multiple extract studies. The tuberculosis claim (Jamaica’s “consumption weed”) has correlating evidence from the essential oil’s Mycobacterium marinum NAT inhibitory activity. Traditional knowledge was not wrong. It was ahead of the laboratory by several generations.
“It tastes too bitter to eat.”
The bitterness is real. Maman pasir leaves have a characteristic bitter and mildly pungent flavour that is pronounced when raw and more moderate when cooked. The bitterness comes primarily from the alkaloid content — the same alkaloids that contribute to the plant’s pharmacological activity. The solution is the same one traditional communities arrived at: select very young leaves and shoot tips (less bitter than mature leaves), blanch or boil briefly with the first water discarded, and serve with a strong condiment like sambal or budu that complements rather than fights the bitterness. Eaten as ulam with a bold sambal, the bitterness reads as a flavour note — similar to how bitter gourd or ulam raja is enjoyed. It is not sweet basil. But it is not inedible either.
“Maman pasir can be used as a medicine for pain and fever.”
The ethanolic extract of Cleome rutidosperma produced significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic activity in the standard pharmacological test battery used to evaluate pharmaceutical drugs. The flavonoid content — the highest of any Malaysian indigenous vegetable tested — provides a plausible mechanism. The traditional use for pain and fever across Malaysia, India, Nigeria, and the Philippines was not wrong. The context: these are animal studies, not human clinical trials. The doses used (200–400 mg/kg body weight of concentrated extract) are not directly equivalent to eating the fresh leaf as food. Eating maman pasir regularly as a vegetable is a traditional and reasonable health practice. It is not a replacement for pharmaceutical pain management in acute conditions.
“This plant is the same as the garden spider flower sold in nurseries.”
The ornamental “spider flower” sold in garden nurseries is typically Cleome hassleriana or Cleome spinosa — a related but distinct species with much larger, showier flowers in pink, white, and purple. Cleome rutidosperma is smaller, less showy, and considered a weed rather than a garden ornamental. They are in the same genus, share some phytochemical characteristics, but are not the same plant and should not be used interchangeably medicinally. The edible and medicinal plant covered in this article is specifically Cleome rutidosperma — identifiable by its smaller purple flowers, trifoliolate leaves, and the narrow seed pods that distinguish it from its ornamental cousins.
“You have to cultivate or buy maman pasir to use it.”
Cleome rutidosperma is one of the most common ruderal plants in Malaysia. It grows freely wherever the ground has been disturbed — roadsides, vacant lots, drain banks, cleared land, paddy field edges. It requires no cultivation, no water, no care. In this respect it is the most accessible herb on this entire website. The only barrier is recognition: knowing what it looks like so you can identify it and harvest the young leaves. Once you have seen it, you will notice it everywhere. The leaves should be harvested young (smaller, less bitter), washed thoroughly, and prepared as described above. The plant that most people step over every day without a second glance has the highest antioxidant activity of any Malaysian indigenous vegetable tested in the published literature.
What is well-documented: Cleome rutidosperma has the highest total flavonoid content and highest antioxidant activity of the Malaysian indigenous vegetables tested in a peer-reviewed 2015 study. Significant analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and antipyretic activity is confirmed by a published pharmacological study using standard pharmaceutical test protocols. In vitro antiplasmodial activity is documented. Broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity against clinically relevant bacteria and fungi is documented in multiple extract studies. The essential oil is 83.23% eucalyptol — a well-characterised pharmaceutical compound. Traditional use as an edible vegetable is documented across Malaysia, Indonesia, West Africa, India, and the Philippines.
What requires honest qualification: The pharmacological studies are animal studies, not human clinical trials. Dosing in animal studies (200–400 mg/kg of concentrated ethanolic extract) is not equivalent to dietary consumption of the fresh leaf. The antiplasmodial evidence is in vitro only. The antimicrobial evidence is laboratory-based. The total body of clinical human evidence is limited — Cleome rutidosperma is understudied relative to its potential precisely because it is a common weed with no commercial extraction value. This is itself a Wrong Default observation: the plants with the strongest commercial incentive for study get studied; the ones that grow free on roadsides do not.
The bottom line: Maman pasir is a genuinely nutritious edible plant with a real and documented pharmacological profile. It grows free everywhere in Malaysia. It has been eaten safely as a vegetable across multiple cultures for generations. The evidence for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activity is the strongest of any roadside plant in the Malaysian literature. Eating it regularly as a vegetable is a sensible, evidence-informed practice. It does not require a supplement form. It requires only the recognition to stop walking past it.
Identify correctly before consuming. Cleome rutidosperma is identifiable by its small purple flowers, trifoliolate (three-leaflet) leaves, and narrow cylindrical seed pods. If unsure, have an experienced forager or botanist confirm the identification before eating. The ornamental Cleome species sold in nurseries are related but not the same plant.
Harvest from clean ground. Avoid plants growing on roadsides with heavy traffic, near industrial sites, or on land that may have been treated with herbicides or pesticides. The roadside closest to a busy highway is not ideal. Less-trafficked verges, paddy field edges, and cleared woodland are better sources.
Wash thoroughly. Wild-harvested plants carry dust, soil, and potential surface contamination. Wash several times in clean water before preparation.
Seeds contain anti-nutritional factors. The seeds contain tannins and cardiac glycosides alongside their nutritional content. Seed consumption should be modest and seeds should be properly processed (ground, cooked) before eating. The leaves and young shoots consumed as a vegetable are the traditional and safe primary use.
Pregnancy: Traditional use includes some records of the plant being used to affect uterine tone in parts of West Africa. Out of caution, avoid therapeutic doses during pregnancy. Casual consumption as a vegetable in small amounts has a long traditional record of safety.
References & Sources (click to expand)
- Abdul Wahab, N. et al. (2015). Nutritional values and bioactive components of under-utilised vegetables consumed by indigenous people in Malaysia. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 95(5):1040–1047. DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.7006. [Maman Pasir highest flavonoid content 39.99 g CE/kg; highest DPPH 82.2%]
- Ghosh, P. et al. (2019). Natural Habitat, Phytochemistry and Pharmacological Properties of a Medicinal Weed — Cleome rutidosperma DC. (Cleomaceae): A Comprehensive Review. International Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, 10(4):1605–1612.
- Ngah, N. et al. (2007). Analgesic, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic activities of the ethanolic extract and its fractions of Cleome rutidosperma. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 114(3):451–454. PMID: 17651915. DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2007.08.029.
- Maximus, E.C. et al. (2010/2021). Studies on in vitro antiplasmodial activity of Cleome rutidosperma. PubMed ID: 20524435. [In vitro activity against Plasmodium falciparum]
- Nguyen, T.H.D. (2023). Review on Bioactive Compounds and Pharmacological Properties of Cleome rutidosperma DC. ResearchGate. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.24219.51680.
- Bhatwalkar, S. et al. / Multiple authors. Antibacterial activity of Cleome rutidosperma extracts. [Antimicrobial activity against S. aureus, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Candida albicans and others]
- McNeil, M. et al. (2018). Chemical composition and biological activities of the essential oil from Cleome rutidosperma DC. ScienceDirect. DOI: 10.1016/j.fitote.2018.06.016. [Eucalyptol 83.23%; NAT inhibition IC50 22.20 µg/mL]
- Ikhwan, M. et al. (2021). Analysis of metabolites from purple Cleome extract as potential organic fungicides. Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, 37(1):115–121.
- Akinsola, A.F. & Oluwafemi, O.S. (2022). Nutritional and related content. [Vitamins and minerals in C. rutidosperma]
- Stuart, G.U. StuartXchange.org: Seru Walai (Cleome rutidosperma). Philippine Alternative Medicine. Available: stuartxchange.org/SeruWalai.
- Socfindo Conservation. Cleome rutidosperma — Fringed Spider Flower. Available: socfindoconservation.co.id. [Comprehensive name list across Africa, Asia, Americas]
- Siddiqui, S. et al. (2021). Phytochemistry and polypharmacology of Cleome species. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 279:114281. DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2021.114281. PMID: 34487845.