Boraginaceae FAMILY

Heliotropium indicum

Edibility

1/5

Medicinal

3/5

Safety & Hazards

The plant contains the pyrrolizidine alkaloids indicine, indicine-N-oxide, acetyl-indicine, indicinine, heleurine, heliotrine, supinine, supinidine and lindelofidine. Safe in small doses, if consumed regularly or in large quantities they have been shown to have a cumulative toxic effect upon the liver^[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitAnnual/Perennial

Growth—

Originally from S. America, the plant has spread and become naturalized through much of the tropics and subtropics^[2]. Plants can flower all year round^[1].

Propagation

Seed - Cite as: Tropical Plants Database, Ken Fern. tropical.theferns.info. 2026-02-20. <tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Heliotropium+indicum>

Pollinators

Insects

References

[1]Protabase - Plant Resources of Tropical Africa. — http://www.prota.org ↩︎An excellent on-line database with detailed information on over 3,200 species of useful plants of Africa.
[2]Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk — http://www.hear.org/pier/scientificnames/index.html ↩︎A very good website detailing weed species that have been introduced into the Pacific Islands.
[3]Traditional Vegetables in Benin — Achigan-Dako E. Et al · Darwin Initiative; International Foundation for Science · 2009 ↩︎Issued as a PDF on the Internet, it contains basic information on over 250 species of plants used for food in Benin.
[4]Medicinal Plants of the Guianas — DeFilipps, R. A.; Maina, S. L.; & Crepin, J. · Smithsonian Museum · http://botany.si.edu/bdg/medicinal/index.html ↩︎A down-loadable PDF document of a book in pre-publication awaiting illustration. An excellent, if rather terse, guide to the traditional medicinal uses of the plants of the region
[PFAF]Plants for a Future — pfaf.org ↩︎