Sweet Broom

In Amazonia, this plant is referred to as bati

matoshi or piqui pichana, and its dried leaves are

smoked as a marijuana substitute (see Cannabis

indica) (Duke and Vasquez 1994, 154*). In Brazil,

the herbage finds folk medicinal use as an

astringent and antispasmodic (Grieve 1982,427*).

The plant is known in central Africa as osimmiseng,

and its leaves are used in a magical

medicine for spells with «worms" (Akendengue

1992, 170*). Members of the Bastar tribe (India)

make the leaves into pills that are swallowed to treat "weakness of the semen" (Jain 1965, 244*).

The plant contains labdane (diterpenes).