Skip to main content

Garden balsam (Impatiens balsamina)

Balsam or rose balsam or touch-me-not or spotted snapweed or garden balsam (Impatiens balsamina) is a plant species in the Balsaminaceae, annual plant, fibrous roots, 20-75 cm high, stems thick but soft, cylindrical, bright green or red and has many branches.

I. balsamina has leaves arranged spirally, oblong-ovate in shape, 2.5-9 cm long, 1-2.5 cm wide, scalloped edges, sharp tip, a main vein in the center with many small veins pinnate and green.

Dlium Garden balsam (Impatiens balsamina)


Flowers are bright red or red or mauve or purple or lilac or white, 2.5-5 cm in diameter and have long stalks. The seed capsule is elliptical in shape, green in color and has white hair. The mature seed capsule undergoes explosive dehiscence. Flowers are pollinated by bees, insects and nectar-feeding birds.

Various parts of the plant are used as traditional medicine for rheumatism, broken bones, constipation, gastritis and skin diseases. The juice from the leaves is used to treat warts, snake bites and fish poison. Flowers are used for burns. Plant extracts to stimulate hair growth.



The seed pods are active against antibiotic-resistant strains of Helicobacter pylori. It is also an inhibitor of 5α-reductase, the enzyme that converts testosterone to dihydrotestosterone (the active form of testosterone), thereby reducing the action of testosterone in the body.

The leaves are crushed to color the nails. The flowers are ground and mixed with alum to produce an orange dye that can be used to color semi-permanent nails, so colored nails must grow over time to remove traces of the color.

Naphthoquinones lawone or hennotannic acid, lawone methyl ether and methylene-3,3'-bilawsone are some of the active compounds in the leaves. It also contains kaempferol and some of its derivatives. Baccharane glycosides have been found in Chinese herbal medicine made from the seeds.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Ericales
Family: Balsaminaceae
Genus: Impatiens
Subgenus: Impatiens
Section: Uniflorae
Species: Impatiens balsamina

Popular Posts

Asian water hyacinth (Pontederia hastata)

Asian water hyacinth ( Pontederia hastata ) is a species of plant in the Pontederiaceae, herbaceous, aquatic, erect, growing in colonies in wet environments with freshwater bodies, lakes, swamps, rivers and agricultural land and abandoned lands. P. hastata is up to 120 cm tall, cylindrical leaf stalks and green in color. Leaves are heart-shaped or arrow-shaped, up to 25 cm long, up to 21 cm wide, green and thick. Inflorescences in panicles and grow on leaf stalks. Fan-shaped flowers, up to 3 cm wide, six-winged, blue in color, white stamens and yellow pollen. Flower stalks up to 3 cm long and white. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Liliopsida Order: Commelinales Family: Pontederiaceae Genus: Pontederia Subgenus: Monochoria Species: Pontederia hastata

Guinea grass (Panicum maximum)

Guinea grass or buffalo grass or green panic ( Panicum maximum ) is a plant species in Poaceae, annual grasses, growing upright to form clumps, strong, cultivated in all tropical and subtropical regions for very high value as fodder. P. maximum reproduces in very large pols, fibrous roots penetrate into the soil, upright stems, green, 1-1.5 m tall and have smooth cavities for diameters up to 2.5 mm. Propagation is done vegetatively and generatively. Ribbon-shaped leaves with a pointed tip, very many, built in lines, green, 40-105 cm long, 10-30 mm wide, erect, branched, a white linear bone, often covered with a layer of white wax, rough surface by hair short, dense and spread. The flower grows at the end of a long and upright stalk, open with the main axis length to more than 25 cm and the length of the bunches down to 20 cm. Grains have a size of 3x4 mm and oval. Seeds have a length of 2.25-2.50 mm and each 1 kg contains 1.2 - 1.5 million seeds. Guinea grass has two varieties. P...

Purwaceng (Pimpinella pruatjan)

Purwaceng or purwoceng or antanan gunung or Viagra of Java ( Pimpinella pruatjan or Pimpinella priatjan ) are small termas growing horizontally in Apiaceae, growing in villages on Dieng Plateau, Central Java Province, Indonesia, at 1,500 to 2,000 meters above sea level, the roots have medicinal properties for aphrodisiacs and are usually processed in powder form for a mixture of coffee or milk. P. pruatjan grows flat on the ground but does not propagate, small leaves are reddish green for 1-3 cm in diameter. This plant is only found in Java and grows in high mountain areas. A low population where industrial demand is very high results in increasingly scarce. Another place that is likely to become a purwaceng habitat is the Iyang Mountains and the Tengger Mountains in East Java Province. Efforts to multiply and cultivate have a big problem where these plants have difficulty producing seeds. In vitro propagation research through tissue cultivation has been carried out to overcome ...