Key Benefits and Traditional Uses:
- Skin and External Applications: A paste made from the leaves (often mixed with oil) is applied externally to treat various skin issues. These include wounds, ulcers, burns, insect bites, rashes, boils, and gouty joints. The leaf extract contains soothing and antioxidant properties that help alleviate irritation and support skin healing.
- Digestive Health: The leaf juice is traditionally consumed as a remedy for dysentery, diarrhea, and constipation. They are considered a liver stimulant and can help with stomach pain.
- Respiratory System: In traditional medicine, cotton leaves have been used to treat respiratory ailments such as coughs, hoarse throats, asthma, and bronchial congestion. The mucilage in the leaves helps to protect inflamed mucous tissue in the respiratory organs.
- Pain Relief: Used in baths to treat fevers and headaches.
- Women’s Health: In some traditional practices, leaves are given orally to help expel the placenta after childbirth or to induce abortion (which carries significant safety concerns).
- Nervous System: The juice is sometimes used as a remedy for mental illness and the plant as a whole is thought to have a calming effect.
