Cleavers (Galium aparine) is a wildly versatile herbaceous annual plant that belongs to the family Rubiaceae. A lot of names are associated with this edible plant such as sticky grass, stickeljack, grip grass, stickyweed, catchweed, sticky bob, and so forth. Cleavers have straggling stems that branch out and attach to nearby things with the aid of small hooked hair.
Cleavers contain stalkless, narrow, and whorled leaves that can be found in the group of 6 or 9 at each stem. The leaves possess small hooked hairs that help in attaching to whatever comes in the way of the plant. It has tiny white flowers that are arranged in the clusters of nine.
Anciently, they had been used as a medicine for treating the diseases of the kidney, urinary tract, and skin. Also, cleavers were a perfect remedy for gonorrhea and sometimes it was used as an oral contraceptive to prevent pregnancy. The legendary botanical is also quite effective in reducing weight as it induces diuresis which accounts for flushing the toxins out of the system.
Cleavers are packed with various biologically active ingredients like phenolic compounds, tannins, flavonoids, and alkaloids such as anthraquinones and coumarins that are responsible for the potency of cleavers as an efficacious medicinal plant.