‘Helencha’ (Enhydra fluctuans Lour.): A brief overview

‘Helencha’ (Enhydra fluctuans Lour.), a well-known but underused leafy vegetable with medicinal properties, belongs to the family Asteraceae (alt. Compositae). This aquatic or semi-aquatic herb is also known by several other common names such as ‘buffalo spinach’, ‘English marsh herb’, ‘godobos’, ‘harkuch’, ‘hilmochikah’, ‘hinche’, ‘jalabrahmi’, ‘phak bung ruem’ and ‘zhao ju’. Enhydra fluctuans is synonymous with Coreopsis anagallis, Enhydra anagallis, E. linifolia, E. longifolia, E. paludosa, E. wollsii, Tetraotis longifolia, T. paludosa and Meyera fluctuans. This plant is indigenous to Bangladesh and India, but also native to other South- East Asian countries like Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, and introduced in various other countries, e.g., China, the Philippines, Senegal and Zaire.