Ipomoea

Human uses of Ipomoea include:

• Most species have small, colorful flowers, and are often grown as ornamentals, and a number of cultivars have been developed. Their deep flowers attract large Lepidoptera – especially the Sphingidae, such as the pink-spotted hawk moth (Agrius cingulata) – or even hummingbirds.
• The genus includes food crops; the tubers of sweet potatoes (I. batatas) and the leaves of water spinach (I. aquatica) are commercially important food items, and have been for millennia. The sweet potato is one of the Polynesian "canoe plants", transplanted by settlers on islands throughout the Pacific. Water spinach is used all over eastern Asia and the warmer regions of the Americas as a key component of well-known dishes, such as canh chua rau muống (Mekong sour soup) or callaloo; its numerous local names attest to its popularity. Other species are used on a smaller scale, e.g. the whitestar potato (I. lacunosa) traditionally eaten by some Native Americans, such as the Chiricahua Apaches, or the Australian bush potato (I. costata). The peduncles or seed pods of Ipomoea muricata are consumed as a delicacy in the Indian state of Kerala.
• Peonidin, an anthocyanidin potentially useful as a food additive, is present in significant quantities in the flowers of the 'Heavenly Blue' morning glory cultivar.
• Ipomoea sepiaria is part of the Dashapushpam (Ten sacred flowers) in Kerala and is known as "Thiruthali" in Malayalam.{{Cite book|last=Vijayan Namboothiri, Mini|title='Dashapushpam'- through the looking glasses of Science and Religion|isbn=978-620-0-31860-2|oclc=1197284682}}{{Cite journal|last1=Uthaman|first1=Ashly|last2=Nair|first2=Sreesha N|date=2017|title=A Review on Ten Sacred Flowers in Kerala: Dasapushpam|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.5958/0974-360x.2017.00274.8|journal=Research Journal of Pharmacy and Technology|volume=10|issue=5|pages=1555|doi=10.5958/0974-360x.2017.00274.8|issn=0974-3618|url-access=subscription}}
• Moon vine (I. alba) sap was used for vulcanization of the latex of Castilla elastica (Panama rubber tree, Nahuatl: olicuáhuitl) to rubber; as it happens, the rubber tree seems well-suited for the vine to twine upon, and the two species are often found together. As early as 1600 BCE, the Olmecs produced the balls used in the Mesoamerican ballgame.Massachusetts Institute of Technology Summer Institute in Materials Science and Material Culture: [http://web.mit.edu/org/m/materialculture/www/rubberprocessing.html Rubber Processing in Ancient Mesoamerica]. Retrieved 2007-NOV-22.
• The root called John the Conqueror in hoodoo and used in lucky and/or sexual charms (though apparently not as a component of love potions, because it is a strong laxative if ingested) usually seems to be from I. jalapa. The testicle-like dried tubers are carried as amulets and rubbed by the users to gain good luck in gambling or flirting. As Willie Dixon wrote, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, in his song "Rub My Root" (a Muddy Waters version is titled "My John the Conquer Root"):

:My pistol may snap, my mojo is frail

:But I rub my root, my luck will never fail

:When I rub my root, my John the Conquer root

:Aww, you know there ain't nothin' she can do, Lord,

:I rub my John the Conquer root

{{more references|section|date=March 2025}}

File:Ergometrine.svg (ergometrine)]]

Humans use Ipomoea spp. for their content of medical and psychoactive compounds, mainly alkaloids.{{Cite journal |last1=Nowak |first1=Julia |last2=Woźniakiewicz |first2=Michał |last3=Klepacki |first3=Piotr |last4=Sowa |first4=Anna |last5=Kościelniak |first5=Paweł |date=2016 |title=Identification and determination of ergot alkaloids in Morning Glory cultivars |journal=Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry |volume=408 |issue=12 |pages=3093–3102 |doi=10.1007/s00216-016-9322-5 |issn=1618-2642 |pmc=4830885 |pmid=26873205}} Some species are renowned for their properties in folk medicine and herbalism; for example, Vera Cruz jalap (I. jalapa) and Tampico jalap (I. simulans) are used to produce jalap, a cathartic preparation accelerating the passage of stool.{{Cite web |title=JALAP: Overview, Uses, Side Effects, Precautions, Interactions, Dosing and Reviews |url=https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-288/jalap |access-date=30 May 2024 |website=www.webmd.com |language=en}} Kiribadu ala (giant potato, I. mauritiana) is one of the many ingredients of chyawanprash, the ancient Ayurvedic tonic called "the elixir of life"{{Cite web |date=23 August 2022 |title=CHYAWANPRASH – Ancient Elixir of Life |url=https://www.everest-ayurveda.com/chyawanprash-ancient-elixir-life-6585 |access-date=30 May 2024 |website=Everest Ayurveda |language=en-gb}} for its wide-ranging properties.

The leaves of I. batatas are eaten as a vegetable, and have been shown to slow oxygenation of LDLs, with some similar potential health benefits to green tea and grape polyphenols.{{cite journal | pmc=3082074 | pmid=21562639 | doi=10.3164/jcbn.10-84 | volume=48 | issue=3 | title=Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) leaves suppressed oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) in vitro and in human subjects | year=2011 | journal=J Clin Biochem Nutr | pages=203–8| last1=Nagai | first1=Miu | last2=Tani | first2=Mariko | last3=Kishimoto | first3=Yoshimi | last4=Iizuka | first4=Maki | last5=Saita | first5=Emi | last6=Toyozaki | first6=Miku | last7=Kamiya | first7=Tomoyasu | last8=Ikeguchi | first8=Motoya | last9=Kondo | first9=Kazuo }}

Other species were and still are used as potentially potent entheogens. Seeds of Mexican morning glory (tlitliltzin, I. tricolor) were thus used by Aztecs and Zapotecs in shamanistic and priestly divination rituals, and at least by the former also as a poison, to give the victim a "horror trip"{{Cite web |title=Ipomoea coccinea (Mexican Morning Glory, Red Morning Glory, Redstar, Scarlet Creeper) {{!}} North Carolina Extension Gardener Plant Toolbox |url=https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ipomoea-coccinea/#poison |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=plants.ces.ncsu.edu}}{{Cite web |date=2016-04-06 |title=Morning Glory |url=https://pflanzenkunst.wordpress.com/plant-profiles/morning-glory/ |access-date=2025-03-28 |website=Pflanzenkunst |language=en}} (see also Aztec entheogenic complex). Beach moonflower (I. violacea) was also used thusly, and the cultivars called 'Heavenly Blue', touted today for their psychoactive properties, seem to represent an indeterminable assembly of hybrids of these two species.File:Ergin - Ergine.svg (D-lysergic acid amide)]] Ergoline derivatives (lysergamides) are probably responsible for the entheogenic activity. Ergine (LSA), isoergine, D-lysergic acid N-(α-hydroxyethyl)amide and lysergol have been isolated from I. tricolor, I. violacea and/or purple morning glory (I. purpurea); although these are often assumed to be the cause of the plants' effects, this is not supported by scientific studies, which show although they are psychoactive, they are not notably hallucinogenic.{{Citation needed|reason=Does this mean that they are not very psychoactive? Otherwise it looks to me like a contradiction|date=November 2009}} Alexander Shulgin in TiHKAL suggests ergonovine is responsible, instead. It has verified psychoactive properties, though as yet other undiscovered lysergamides possibly are present in the seeds.

Though most often noted as "recreational" drugs, the lysergamides{{Cite web |last=PubChem |title=Lysergamide |url=https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/442072 |access-date=30 May 2024 |website=pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov |language=en}} are also of medical importance. Ergonovine enhances the action of oxytocin, used to still post partum bleeding. Ergine induces drowsiness and a relaxed state, so might be useful in treating anxiety disorder. Whether Ipomoea species are useful sources of these compounds remains to be determined. In any case, in some jurisdictions, certain Ipomoea are regulated, e.g. by the Louisiana State Act 159, which bans cultivation of I. violacea except for ornamental purposes.

File:Koeh-077.jpg) from Köhler's Medicinal Plants]]

Many herbivores avoid morning glories such as Ipomoea, as the high alkaloid content makes these plants unpalatable, if not toxic. Nonetheless, Ipomoea species are used as food plants by the caterpillars of certain Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths). For a selection of diseases of the sweet potato (I. batatas), many of which also infect other members of this genus, see List of sweet potato diseases.

The species of Ipomoea interfere with each other's pollination. Pollen from different species compete in each other's reproductive processes, imposing a fitness cost.{{cite journal | last1=Weber | first1=Marjorie G. | last2=Strauss | first2=Sharon Y. | author2-link=Sharon Y. Strauss | title=Coexistence in Close Relatives: Beyond Competition and Reproductive Isolation in Sister Taxa | journal=Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics | publisher=Annual Reviews | volume=47 | issue=1 | year=2016 | issn=1543-592X | doi=10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-112414-054048 | pages=359–381| doi-access=free }}

File:Sweet potato flower.jpg|Ipomoea batatas (sweet potato) flower

File:Ipomoea lacunosa1.jpg|Whitestar potato Ipomoea lacunosa

File:MorningGlory5.jpg|Whitestar potato (I. lacunosa)

File:Ipomoea carnea.jpg|Ipomoea carnea in Brazil

File:Ipomoea-barbatisepala.jpg|I. barbatisepala

File:Ipomoea cairica (2).jpg|Ipomoea cairica

File:Wild Morning Glory -- Ipomoea cordatotriloba.jpg|Ipomoea cordatotriloba

File:Starr 050530-7136 Ipomoea indica.jpg|Ipomoea indica

File:Ipomoea macrantha.jpg|Ipomoea macrantha

File:Ipomoea marginata in Hyderabad W IMG 4988.jpg|Ipomoea marginata

File:Ipomoea mauritiana-IMG 5508.jpg|Ipomoea mauritiana

File:Ipomoea nil.jpg|Purple cultivar of Ipomoea indica

File:Starr 070111-3107 Ipomoea obscura.jpg|Ipomoea obscura

File:Wild Potato Vine - Ipomoea pandurata, Meadowood Farm SRMA, Mason Neck, Virginia.jpg|Ipomoea pandurata

File:Ipomoea pes-caprae - flower view 01.jpg|Ipomoea pes-caprae in China

File:Ipomoea purpurea (Convolvulaceae) flower 1.JPG|Ipomoea purpurea

File:Saltmarsh Morning-glory (Ipomoea sagittata) - Sanibel Island, FL, USA 03.jpg|Ipomoea sagittata in Florida

File:Ипомея. Восточная Сибирь.jpg|Ipomoea purpurea, Eastern Siberia

File:Campanitas (in Spanish) (4352689627).jpg| Ipomoea campanulata, India.

• List of Ipomoea species

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• {{Cite Americana|wstitle=Ipomæa |short=x}}
• [http://www.finegardening.com/design/articles/morning-glory-flowering-vines.aspx Fine Gardening: Morning glories and more]

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Category:Convolvulaceae genera

Category:Medicinal plants

Category:Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus

Category:Taxa described in 1753