Plantago ovata
Psyllium var fastigiata
Plantago ovata is a plant of the genus plantains ( Plantago ). It is native to the desert regions of North Africa and Southwest Asia. The seeds of the plant are sold as food and for medicinal purposes under the name psyllium seed or psyllium husks and cultivated for that purpose primarily in India and Pakistan.
Description
Plantago ovata is an annual (sometimes perennial ) herbaceous plant which grows to a height of 2 to 10 cm. The lineal (rarely linear- lanceolate ) leaves are in a basal rosette and are 2-10 inches long and 1 to 5, with good water supply to 10 millimeters wide. They are pointed, denticulate away at the edge or mostly entire, einnervig and densely covered with appressed, woolly, to 5 millimeters long hair.
The ascending stems are much longer than the leaves, not wrinkled and densely hispid with woolly - 1 (up to 2 ) mm long hair. The flowers are (rarely 3.5 ) cm long spikes in dense, ovoid, 0.5 to 2. The bracts are about 3 mm long, ovate to circular, with at the top emerging midrib and wide skin margins. The sepals are 2 to 2.5 mm long, almost equal in size, fused only at the base, rounded and almost flat. You have an outgoing midrib and broad, balanced skin edges. The corolla tube is (1.5 to ) 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters long and bare. The corolla lobes are about 2.5 millimeters long, broadly ovate to rounded and pointed at the tip obtuse to very short.
The fruit capsules are elliptical, 2.5 and 3 millimeters long and hairless. They contain two 2 to 2.5 millimeters each large, ovate to oblong - round, boat-shaped, yellow to brown seeds.
Plantago ovata flowers to rainfall, usually from January to April. Depending on the water supply, this plantain very variable in size, leaf shape and pubescence.
The chromosome number is 2n = 8
Dissemination
Plantago ovata is a saharo - sindisches Florenelement. The natural range extends from the Canary Islands and Madeira on Southeast Spain, North Africa, Cyprus, the Levant and the Arabian Peninsula to Afghanistan, Pakistan and India. The deposits in the New World in areas with suitable climate in the southern United States (California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Texas), Mexico ( Baja California) are often regarded as younger naturalization, but based according to molecular genetic studies on a immigration in the Pleistocene 200000-650000 years ago. Naturalized is the kind of central, eastern and southern Asia and Australia.
Psyllium comes in wadis and in other places before with temporary accumulation of water, on fallow land and grazed Annuellenfluren on nitrified soils.
System
Plantago ovata was first described in 1775 by Peter Forsskål. They can be divided into four varieties divide:
- Plantago ovata Forssk. var ovata, represents the kind in North Africa. The corolla lobes have a length to width ratio of only 0.9 to 1.3.
- Psyllium var decumbens ( Forssk. ) Zohary, occurs in the Middle East. The length to width ratio of the corolla lobes is like at the North American varieties in (1.2 to ) 1.3 to 1.7. The pubescence of the bracts shorter than a third of bract length.
- Psyllium var fastigiata ( Morris) S. Meyers & A. Liston, grows in the desert regions of North America. The pubescence of the bracts longer than one-third of bract length in the two North American varieties. The corolla lobes do not have reddish brown midrib. The midrib of the bracts of the flower is green.
- Psyllium insularis var ( Eastwood ) S. Meyers & A. Liston, is widespread on the Pacific coast of North America and on the Californian and Mexican Channel Islands. The corolla lobes usually have a strong reddish brown midrib. The midrib of the bracts of the flower is brown.
Use
Food
The seed husks are used as high-fiber foods. They are also used eg as binder to produce gluten-free baked goods (pizza, muffins, etc.). These may be used in fruit juices as mucus and cereal bars as satiety agents.
Drug
Main article: Flohsamenschalen
On the market there are several approved as drugs, counter products, which are used because of the good swelling capacity for the treatment of constipation. They act laxative ( by swelling with increase in volume and pressure on the myenteric plexus of the colon ), but also counteract the diarrhea, since the binding of water to thicken the stool leads.