Asian spider flower is a usually tall annual herb, up to a meter high,
more or less hairy with
glandular and eglandular hairs. Leaves are digitately compound, with
3-5 leaflets. Leaflets are
obovate, elliptic-oblong, very variable in size, often 2-4 cm long, 1.5-2.5 cm
broad, middle one largest; petiole up to 5 cm long. Racemes elongated, up to
30 cm long, with corym¬bose flowers at the top and elongated mature fruits
below, bracteate. Flowers 10-15 mm across, whitish or yellowish; pedicels 6-20
mm long; bracts foliaceous. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, 3-4 mm long, 1-2 mm
wide, glandular-pubescent. Petals 8-15 mm long, 2-4 mm broad, oblong-obovate.
Stamens 10-12 (rarely more, up to 20), not exceeding the petals; gynophore
absent. Fruit 30-75 mm long, 3-5 mm broad, linear-oblong, erect, obliquely
striated, tapering at both ends, glandular-pubescent, slender; style 2-5 mm
long; seeds many, 1-1.4 mm in diam., glabrous with longitudinal striations and
transverse ridges, dark brown.
Medicinal uses: The leaves are diaphoretic, rubefacient and
vesicant. They are used as an external application to wounds and ulcers.
The juice of the leaves has been used to relieve earache. The seeds are
anthelmintic, carminative, rubefacient and vesicant. The seed contains
0.1% viscosic acid and 0.04% viscosin.