Botany
Buntot pusa is an annual, hairy herb, 30 to 60 centimeters in height. Leaves are oblong, 2.5 to 7.5 centimeters long, stalkless or short-stalked, and acute of blunt at the tip. Flowers are small, borne in whorls or hairy spikes. Calyx is very small, 5 to 7 millimeters long, with triangular teeth; enlarging to a fruit. Corolla is usually pink, with a slender tube and hairy lobes. Nutlets are ellipsoid and smooth.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings

(1) Inherited folk pharmaceutical knowledge of tribal people in the Chittagong Hill tracts, Bangladesh / Animesh Biswas, M A Bari et al / Indian Journ of Traditional Knowledge, Vol 9(1), Jan 2010, pp 77-89

(2) Dysophylla auricularia / Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh

(3) Dysophylla auricularia (L.) Blume / The Plant List

(4) Pogostemon auricularius (L.) Hassk. / Chinese names / Tropicos

(5) Pogostemon auricularius (L.) Hassk. / Retnowati, E., 2001. Pogostemon auricularius (L.) Hassk.[Internet] Record from Proseabase. van Valkenburg, J.L.C.H. and Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors). / PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. http://www.proseanet.org.

(6) Spasmolytic diterpenes from pogostemon auricularis. / Agarwal S.; Hussaini F.A.; Prakash O.; Roy R.; Shoeb A. /Indian Journal Of Chemistry Section B Organic Chemistry Including Medicinal Chemistry. 29(2): 184-186,1990.

(7) Phytochemical, Cytotoxic and Thrombolytic Activity of Methanolic Extract of Dysophylla auricularia leaves. / Nasir Uddin Rana, Imam Hasan, Naymul Karim, Md Hossan Sakib, Md Harun Or Rashid, Rana Dhar* / AJPTR

Distribution
– Abundant in open, wet places at low and medium altitudes from northern Luzon to Palawan and Mindanao.
– Also occurs in India to southern China and Malaya.

Constituents
– Aerial parts of P. auricularius yielded 4 cleistanthane type diterpenoids (C20), one of which is auricularic acid. Compounds shown to exhibit spasmolytic activity.
– Study yielded three novel diterpenoids from the whole plant of P. auricularis, namely: cleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid and 7-hydroxy- and 7-acetoxycleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acids.
– Aerial parts yielded two diterpenes characterized as 7-(3-methylbutyroxy)cleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid and 7-senecioxycleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid.

Properties
– Considered diuretic, antipyretic, antihelmintic, antidiarrheal, spasmolytic, and anti-cancer.

Parts used
Leaves, leaf juice, whole plant.

Uses
Folkloric
– Used in children, for simple stomach problems as pains and flatulence. The plant is pounded, alone or poulticed with lime, and applied to the abdomen.
– Poultice is also used for parasitism, kidney ailments, sore throat, headache, stomach pains and diarrhea.
– Malays used the plant for treating simple disturbances of the stomach in children.
– In Java, leaves reportedly used for stomach problems.
– In Bangladesh, used for stomach pains as warm leaf poultice; and as leaf juice in tetanus, as blood purifier, and for helminthiasis. Leaf juice used as eye drops in hysteria. Plant extract given with salt for diarrhea.
– In Indonesia, poultice of leaves used as cure for diarrhea, colic, worms, sores, kidney problems and sore throat. In Indo-China, decoction used for malaria; lotion used as rubefacients against rheumatism.
– In Thailand, roots, stems or leaves used as diuretic and antipyretic. In Malesia infusion of leaves of several Pogostemon spp. taken to relieve painful menstruation.
– Leaf juice used as eye drops in hysteria.
– In Bangladesh, extract given with salt in diarrhea by the Marma in Bandarban.

Study Findings
• Diuretic Activity: In a screening of Indian plants for biologic activity, M auricularis showed diuretic activity.
• Spasmolytic Diterpenes: Two diterpenes, isolated from the aerial parts of Pogostemon auricularis, have been characterized as 7-(3-methylbutyroxy)cleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid and 7-senecioxycleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid.
• Cytotoxic / Thrombolytic / Leaves: Study evaluated a methanolic extract of leaves for cytotoxicy and thrombolytic activities. In Brine shrimp lethality assay, with vincristine as positive control, results showed a LC50 value of 10.51 µg/ml. Extract showed considerable thrombolytic activity exerting 42.1208% lysis of the blood clot.

Availability
Wild-crafted.