Pata

Cissampelos pareira, called velvetleaf, is a species of flowering plant in the family Menispermaceae. The page describes it as a slender climber covered in fine hairs, with leaves 2.5 to 12 centimetres long that are peltate, meaning the stalk joins the blade inside its edge, and heart-shaped or truncate at the base. The male flowers cluster in the axil of a small leaf and have four sepals and four petals joined into a four-toothed cup. The female flowers also cluster in the leaf axils. The species is used in Chinese herbology, where it is called xi sheng teng. It is also known as abuta and, in Ayurvedic medicine, as laghu patha. In Tamil Nadu it is called ponmusutai and is used for a number of medicinal purposes. Some attention has been paid in Kenya and Tanzania to its purported antimalarial properties, and in India to its antiviral properties, especially against Dengue virus.