Codiaeum variegatum

This plant is a garden croton. It is a native of southern Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia and other Eastern Pacific islands. It is an evergreen shrub growing to 3 m (9.8 feet) tall and has large, thick, leathery, shiny evergreen leaves, alternately arranged. This plant is a flowering plant. Therefore it is classified under Angiosperms. This plant belongs to family Eupharbiaceae. They grow in tropical climate.

This plant grows in open forests. The cultivated Codiaeum variegatum are usually smaller and come in an amazing diversity of leaf shapes and colours. This plant is ornamental but wild plant. This plant can grow in shade also and requires moist soil.

Codiaeum variegatum is noted for its bold and rich foliage. Glossy, leathery, smoothed-edged leaves are in bright colours ranging from yellow, pink, orange, red, bronze, purple and green and in combinations, in patterns, involving blotching and striping.

The indoor variety of Codiaeum variegatum has branches. They are bushy shrubs that seldom exceed 90cm in height with a spread of about 60cm. This plant is noted for its varied colours of leaves, its shapes and sizes.

Codiaeum plant has leaves with various colours appearing as spots, blotches, veining etc. In some types old and young leaves look alike. The colours of the leaves tend to change as they age. The smooth and leathery leaves generally have short stalks, but in almost all other respects the leaves can differ enormously. They may be long and narrow, lance or sword-shaped, broad and oval; they may have strait or undulate edges or they be twisted into a kind of spiral; their margins may be slightly indented in any one of a number of patterns or they may be cut almost to the midrib.

The plant has male and female flowers bloom in separate inflorescences. The male flowers are white with five small petals and 20–30 stamens. The female flowers are yellowish in colour with no petals. The fruit is a capsule 9 mm in  diameter, containing three 6 mm seeds. The stems contain milky sap. The sap can cause skin eczema.  The bark, roots, latex, and leaves are also poisonous. The compound present in the leaves is a poisonous chemical called compound 5-deoxyingenol. The plant contains oil which is violently purgative and is suspected a carcinogen. Consumption of the seeds can be fatal to children.

Medicinal uses of Codiaeum variegatum:

Studies have shown that the leaves and the shoots of this plant are rich in alkaloids, cardiac glycosides, saponins, tannins, cardenolides, flavenoids, steroids and phyllates. Phytochemicals like alkaloids, anthraquinones, flavanoids, terpenes, steroid, phenol, saponins, tannins, phlobatannin and cardenolide,are present in the leaves of the plant. Therefore, the leaves have antiamoebic, antibacterial, anticancer, antifungal, antioxidant properties.

A decoction of the crushed leaves is used in the treatment of diarrhoea.

The leaf sap is applied locally to treat snakebite.

Chewing three leaves and then swallowing the juice is used to stimulate menstrual flow, to induce an abortion.

The sap from the leaves or the bark is used to treat sores and fungal infections.

The green tea made by boiling the leaves is used as a wash to ease fevers. 

A decoction of the root is used in the treatment of gastric ulcers.

The medicinal values of Codiaeum do not end here. The extract obtained from the leaves of the Codiaeum plant is capable of killing the larvae of the mosquitoes. This important property of the leaves was found out by a seventeen year old 10^th grader by name Jerouen Paul Lumano. How did he do it?

He picked the leaves from the plant Codiaeum. He dried them for one week. Then, he soaked each type in alcohol. Afterwards, he allowed the alcohol to evaporate. What remained was a concentrated oily liquid full of plant-made chemicals. He tested the extract by dripping small quantities of them into water that contained mosquito eggs and larvae. The extract proved toxic to the insects. In just 24 hours, it had killed all of the mosquito eggs and larvae in the water. That means this common plant can kill larvae of the mosquito that helps spread the viruses that cause Zika, chikungunya and dengue fever.

Courtesy: https://www.sciencenews.org/

https://student.societyforscience.org/article/common-plant-could-help-fight-zika-virus