Viola tricolor, also known as heartsease, is a small wildflower with tri-tone flowers that bloom in spring. It is used in traditional herbalism to treat respiratory problems and is also being studied for its potential use in cancer treatment.
Viola tricolor, also known as heartsease or love-lies-sanging, is an annual or short-lived perennial wildflower native to Europe and Asia. The plant has been introduced to many areas of North America, where it is also known as Johnny-jump-up. It is the ancestor of cultivated thought, and is sometimes called wild thought.
In appearance, Viola tricolor is a small, creeping plant reaching about 6 inches (15.24 centimeters) in height. It is valued for its small, tri-tone flowers that appear in shades of blue, purple, yellow, and white. The flowers bloom in spring and display the familiar ‘faces’ characteristic of all pansy flowers, with darker shades typically found on the upper petals. The plant’s weak and brittle stems tend to droop over time, resulting in a long, tangled mass.
Although the plant is known as a wild flower, Viola tricolor is also widely cultivated in flower gardens throughout the world. In nature, it most often grows on lawns, meadows, and wastelands, and along roadsides. In the garden, the plant will grow anywhere from full sun to full shade, as long as it is provided with cool, moist, acidic soil. Seeds sown in early spring will produce fall flowers, while seeds sown in fall will produce flowers the following spring. Once planted, Viola tricolor self-sows freely and requires little maintenance, apart from infrequent dying back, or the removal of spent blooms, to encourage growth.
Viola tricolor is used in traditional herbalism as a treatment for asthma and epilepsy. It is considered an expectorant, or substance that breaks up thick mucus and helps expel material from the lungs and bronchi. Due to this property, the plant is effective in treating respiratory problems such as whooping cough and bronchitis. In homeopathic medicine, heartsease is used in the treatment of eczema, bee stings, worms, carpal tunnel syndrome, headache, and measles. In addition to its uses as an herbal remedy, the plant’s delicate and colorful flowers have also been used to make natural dyes.
Viola tricolor is one of many different plant species that contain cyclotides, or small peptides that are thought to be useful in the treatment of cancer. The particular cyclotide found in heartsease, vitri A, has cytotoxic properties. This means that it is toxic to cells and can be used to stop or destroy rapidly dividing cancer cells within the human body. However, more scientific research is needed to prove the value of the plant in the field of cancer treatment.
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