Balloon Plant (Cardiospermum halicacabum) Porridge

Balloon Plant  (Cardiospermum halicacabum)- Cardiospermum halicacabum, known as the balloon plant ,Welpenela or love in a puff, is a climbing plant widely distributed in tropical and subtropical Africa and Asia.Often found as a weed along roads and rivers, it has been examined for antidiarrhoeal as well as homoeopathic medicinal properties.

In medicine

The whole plant is diaphoretic, diuretic, emetic, emmenagogue, laxative, refrigerant, rubefacient, stomachic and sudorific. It is used in the treatment of rheumatism, nervous diseases, stiffness of the limbs and snakebite.

• The leaves are rubefacient, they are applied as a poultice in the treatment of rheumatism
  
• A tea made from them is used in the treatment of itchy skin. 
  
• Salted leaves are used as a poultice on swellings.
  
• The leaf juice has been used as a treatment for earache.
  
• The root is diaphoretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, laxative and rubefacient.
  
• It is occasionally used in the treatment of rheumatism, lumbago and nervous diseases.