Amaranthus spinosus common name is  spiny amaranth and it is belong to amaranthaceae family. It is originally comes from fields in South America towards Central America to Mexico. You can cook the leaves and stems or eaten raw to get its very nutritious benefits.

This herbal plant mainly found in warm area and known for traditional medicine throughout the world. It is also found in tropical zone of Asia such as Indonesia to Japan and Pacific Islands. There are a lot of other names for Amaranthus spinosus such as Lal Sag, Thotakura Chaulai, Shavrani mah, Punkirai, Chilaka, Thotakoora.

This herbal plant can grow up to 100 cm high and its leaves normally about 3 inches long. It is good either for salads or for babies food. Traditionally, the main health benefits of Amaranthus Spinosus is to prevent excessive menstrual flow, nose bleeding and mouth ulcers.

There are 5 edible parts of the plants which are shoots and stem, leaves, seeds, and dye. Folks usually add shoots and stem in soups or cook with other vegetables, leaves may be eaten as salads, while its seed could be eaten raw.

Nutrition Value of Amaranthus spinosus

Compositios of  dry weight leaves in grams (g) or miligrams (mg) per 100g of food

• 276 Calories per 100 g
• Water : 0%
• Protein : 30g
• Fat : 4.5g
• Carbohydrate : 50g
• Fibre : 10g
• Ash : 20g
• Minerals – calcium : 5000mg
• Phosphorus : 450mg
• Iron : 100mg
• Magnesium : 0mg
• Sodium : 30mg
• Vitamin A : 40mg
• Vitamin B1 : 0.06mg
• Vitamin B2 : 2.02mg
• Niacin : 8mg
• Vitamin B6 : 0mg
• Vitamin C : 503mg

Health Benefits of Amaranthus Spinosus

1. Help to lose weight – The most natural thing to do to lose weight is to maintain healthy eating, thus we can gain the benefits of healthy eating. But amaranthus contains a lot of vitamins and specific hormone that suppressed food appetite
2. Enhance eyes health – One of many health benefits of Amaranthus Spinosus is to improve eye vision. It is contain lutein that is related to eye tissue to make better vission
3. Increase protein content – It’s high protein value helps our body to create new cells and tissue
4. Treatment for gastrointestinal problems – High fibre content on its leaves enables better circumstances to facilitate digestion process
5. Hair health treatment – Amaranthus has rare amino acid that help to prevent baldness
6. Develop bones – It can be used as a superfood to increase bone growth because it is contain calcium that is necessary to develop bones. It has been said that this particular herbal plant is one of the most higher holdings of calcium compared to any other vegetables

Precautions of Amaranthus Spinosus

Health benefits of Amaranthus spinosus are actually very high compared to any other herbal medicine from its calcium properties. But amaranthus spinosus leaves do contain low level of oxalates, which is not a good thing for people with special medical condition such as kidney stones or gallstones. There has been no record about allergic reaction to this particular herbal plant. It is advisable to seek medical consult before adding amaranthus spinosus into your diet.