Growing Longevity Spinach (Gynura Procumbens) - So Many Reasons Why!
I do a YouTube Live most every Saturday. @katedansyng is normally by my side as a moderator and friend to help the shows run smoothly. @weetreebonsai is a super valuable moderator for my show as well. She is my number one troll net!
This show is starting to take on a special personality all of it's own, and it's not me! Nope, the audience is a real hoot! It's a pleasure to watch the chat happen and to see that the audience is carrying on with each other. I'm pretty sure they just turn the sound off and forget I'm there! LOL
A few Saturdays ago one member of the audience and Kate were conducting a little business on the side. Yep, They were arranging to send some plants to Texas from Florida. Kate arranged the order and facilitated getting the plants to the Daddykirbs Farm. This plant in question is extremely good for you and I'm very excited to have it in the Daddykirbs Garden!
Gynura Procumbens (Longevity Spinach)
The following portion of this post comes from the email that accompanied the shipment of this life saving plant. With permission I'm sharing it here with you to educate a greater audience of this amazing source of good health.
Growing Longevity Spinach
(This growers) Personal Experience
I grow mine in a $12 deep kiddie pool from Walmart...it is 8 to 10 inches is plenty deep enough to keep the plants healthy and it is large enough to have enough for using daily. I keep it at the south edge of a tree canopy for partial shade in the hot part of the day in summer. I put several large drain holes in the side of the pool (2-3 inches up from the ground) rather than the bottom. It can then retain some water, but not too much. I put some native earthworms and composting worms into the soil in pool, and then just put in coffee grounds and spent tea leaves...it makes a very healthy habitat and the plants and worms just thrive. (I lost my war with the local mole population, lol! I only do containers now...)
Just a tip:
I did my last cuttings as an experiment...I was very unhappy with how hot and dry the soil gets so quickly in the normal garden store style of planters. In the summer, they needed watering twice a day at least, and they always looked stressed. This time, I used large styrofoam cups and put the drain holes a couple of inches up the side, as you will see when the plants arrive. The experiment was a great success.
Even though I dislike styrofoam from an environmental standpoint, it seems like the cups will be reusable, and it really is not much different from using the normal plastic containers. The plants did so much better: there was deeper soil for deeper roots, they only needed water every few days, the soil and roots kept a more stable temperature, and the plants grew better. It was also less expensive than the plastic gardening containers which was an added bonus.
I am now going to use these cups for all my seed starting and cuttings.
The more leaves and stems you harvest, the more leaves and branches it grows.
It will flower once a year once it is established. It makes very pretty small orange puffs in the fashion of a dandelion. I saved seeds, but I have not tried growing them yet, so I don't know if they are viable.
Cutting off branches or the growing tip encourages multiple branches to form. The growth habit is for long branches that droop across the ground. They will eventually shade out any other plants that are nearby. It likes moisture, but it easily survives drought. It does very well in partial shade. Young plants may suffer in full sun...introduce full sun slowly. Conversely, full shade causes lanky growth with sparse leaves.
It is a tropical plant, so to get it to grow all year, keep it warm because growth slows and then stops as temperatures fall. To keep leaf growth going, it should be kept at a minimum of 70 degrees F. Outdoors, the plant needs to be protected from frost. It will survive a freeze if the roots stay warm, but a frost will kill off top growth. It will come back fairly quickly from frost damage.
It is a fast grower in warm weather and it also roots readily. However, cuttings I attempted in cold weather in the house failed to root, so soil and water and air temperatures should all be at least 70 degrees F for rooting success. Higher than that is better. You can also bury the center of a long branch to cause rooting. I like to use a minimum of six inches of a cut branch in a cup of soil, but I have seen a man on YouTube who roots in water. (Be sure to take leaves off the section that is in soil or water.)
Uses of Longevity Spinach
Crushing leaves is sufficient for releasing beneficial properties for topical use for injuries or skin treatment. An alcohol tincture from crushed leaves is another alternative.
Longevity spinach has a bland taste (I find it similar to a weak parsley, or a strong lettuce flavor), so it can be added to a smoothie or a salad, used as a garnish, on a sandwich, for hot or cold soup, or just chewed alone. The health benefits are best when raw, but it can be cooked or used as a dried or fresh base for tea. They are nice to much on for a snack.
The leaves and stems are non-toxic and edible. There is no worry about kids or pets eating it. The stems can be used, but the leaves are more tender for consumption. The leaves are slightly thicker than they appear in photos. They are a bit like a succulent rather than a regular leaf and have a very thin layer of clear gel inside that looks similar to aloe vera gel. When it is chewed, though, you don't notice it and it does not feel slimy in the mouth.
For health, the amount of it to use depends on the goal, but people report getting results by just chewing from 4 to 8 raw leaves per day. The leaves are high in protein, and the upper portion of the plant has no toxicity.
To be safe, do not eat the roots. There is one report of an incidence of liver damage reported in a woman in Asia somewhere who stated she ate the root of the longevity spinach, although it was never verified what plant roots she actually ate.
The leaf and stems, though, are being studied extensively for human medical applications so there is a lot of scientific study on the plant. I check for studies using Google Scholar. I included links below the following summary:
- It is anti-inflammatory, both internally and externally (topical application) including rheumatic inflammation.
- It balances blood sugar: it lowers high sugar, but has little effect on people with normal blood sugar levels (150mg/kg) type I and II diabetes.
- It suppresses cancer cell growth (ingesting and topical application), including breast and skin cancer
- it prevents damage caused by UV light exposure (anti aging).
- It protects against ulcers and helps heal existing lesions.
- Helps heal external wounds. (I tested this on myself with a crushed leaf: actually miraculous rapid healing.)
- It prevents scarring, and promotes production of collagen.
- It protects kidney cells from kidney disease.
- Improves sperm count and motility.
- Contains a protein that has the effect of masking the taste sense of bitterness. (A commercial application used for bad tasting medicines).
- It is good for controlling hypertension by acting in two ways: calcium channel and butunolic fraction.
- Promotes healing and reduces virus count of herpes.
- Anti fungal (it was not the most anti fungal plant tested, but the plant that tested highest is also known to be a really strong carcinogen! "Um...your toenail fungus is cured, but now you have cancer...)
- It boosts immune function.
- Protects from liver damage caused by free radicals that are released in the liver by environmental toxin exposure (to toxic chemical in a surgical setting).
- It is a free radical scavenger/anti-oxidant.
An overview article with links to some studies
These are the direct links to studies:
Nutrient content and antioxidant function
4.5% protein, .023% lipids
Inhibits 50% of Lipid peroxidation (cellular damage)
Hydroxyl scavenging
Iron chelating
http://scialert.net/fulltext/?doi=ajps.2010.146.151
Wound healing (caution: contains graphic photos)
http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380719856_Zahra%20et%20al.pdf
Hypertension links
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/jmf.2006.9.587
http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1807-59322011000100025&script=sci_arttext
http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/DPL-vol2-iss2/DPL-2010-2-2-273-293.pdf
http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1472-6882-13-188.pdf
Sperm
http://ejum.fsktm.um.edu.my/article/649.pdf
Taste masking
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12010-011-9377-x
Diabetes
http://www.sma.org.sg/SMJ/4101/articles/4101a2.htm
Herpes
http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2013/394865.pdf
Cancer
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13596-012-0063-5
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874111004168
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0068524
Anti fungal
http://umexpert.um.edu.my/file/publication/00005343_66273.pdf
Liver protection
http://agris.fao.org/agris-search/search.do?recordID=ID2001001119
Diabetes Liver function study
http://ceodcure.blogspot.com/2012/10/gynura-procumbens.html#!
Liver study
http://apb.tbzmed.ac.ir/Portals/0/Archive/Vol2No1/14.Hermawan.pdf
Lymphocyte study...increases aiding immune function
http://www.oalib.com/paper/2080828#.VIXVnkc8KrU
Colon cancer inhibition
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874113009264
Toxicity (full study on scrib)
No toxicity or harmful physiological effect.
Recommended dose = 2.89g dried per 70kg of body weight
Abstract online at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378874109001524
Journal of Ethnopharmacology
22 June 2009, Vol.123(2):244–249, doi:10.1016/j.jep.2009.03.011
Wound healing and toxicology
Significant wound healing results and no toxicity in rats
Extract tested up to 5g/kg body weight.
( 0.18 oz. extract per 2.2 lbs BW extract
= 1lb 5 oz dried leaf per 2.2 lbs BW
http://umexpert.um.edu.my/file/publication/00005343_69996.pdf
(warning: graphic photos in that PDF)
Root compounds (the list is incomplete: those mentioned are beneficial in some manner, but toxicity of root material is not mentioned in the abstract)
Root consumption had one report of liver damage: more study is needed.
To be safe, do not eat the roots.
http://www.researchgate.net/publication/257668174_Induction_characterization_and_NMR-based_metabolic_profiling_of_adventitious_root_cultures_from_leaf_explants_of_Gynura_procumbens
Benefit to Chicken Lovers!
A study I found about feeding it to chickens said it lowered bad bacteria in the chicken poo, and it improved egg cholesterol levels and shell thickness. It caused no harm to the chickens. My hens and chicks all loved it when I gave them a sample.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00071668.2014.938020?journalCode=cbps20
Sounds like a great plant to keep!
I'm very excited about getting it to grow so I can propagate it many many times ;)
Glad to hear that!
Good pozt
👌
Cool 🆒
I grow Longevity Spinach in my garden. Love it. Never knew I could make tincture from crushed leaves. Thanks for the information! I am going to try doing that this year.
This fascinates me both for my own use and possibly on horses. Thanks for the info
Que bueno me ha encantado este post, gracias por compartir!
Good thing I loved this post, thanks for sharing!