In West Africa, Alternanthera sessilis is used as an abortifacient and as a remedy for indigestion.
The plant is used as poultice for boils and in making soap. In Ceylon, and India the herb is a galactogogue and cholagogue, while in Ceylon, Sri Lanka and elsewhere it is eaten as a vegetable.
Other uses in India are as a snake-bite remedy and in Ceylon for the preparation of an eye lotion and as a febrifuge (Watt and Breyer-Brandwijk, 1962; Gayathri et al., 2006).
The different parts of Alternanthera sessilis are used as diuretic, galactogue, intellectual promoting, in night blindness, leprosy, fever, infant convulsion, stomach and gastric problems, blood dysentery and dermatitis (Jain and Srivastava, 2005; Shiddamallaya et al., 2010; Hundiwale-Jogendra et al., 2012; Neamsuvan et al., 2012).
It is also used for the treatment of biliousness, dyspepsia and sluggish liver in Sri Lanka (Rao et al., 2011b)Polyherbal Chinese medicinal compositions (containing Alternanthera sessilis) are used for treating bone injuries (Zeng, 1990), common cold and allaying fever (Ye, 1998), alopecia and dull complexion (Nie, 2007), female gonorrhea (Xu, 2008), vitiligo (Zhan and Zhan, 2011) and dysentry (Deng, 2011d).
An ayurvedic formulation from Alternanthera sessilis is used for the treatment of rickets and marasmus (Mayank, 2006).
Cosmotic composition containing the plant and others can be used as collagen production stimulant, and has the function of preventing skin aging and improving skin (Zhou et al., 2003).
Alternanthera repens has been used in the treatment of gastrointestinal disorders, a number of illness like typhus, headache, hepatitis, asthma (Padmavathy and Abarashan, 2011) and as a diaphoretic, diuretic and astringent agent (Astudillo-Vázquez et al., 2008).

Pharmcological studies of Alternanthera sessilis extracts confirmed the validity of its medicinal use as antidiarrhoeal agent (Zavala et al., 1988; Astudillo-Vázquez et al., 2008).
The extracts of Alternanthera sessilis alter the liver and kidney functions and metabolism (Gupta et al., 1995).
The study of hypoglycemic and antidiabetic effect of Alternanthera sessilis, used in India for the treatment of diabetes mellitus, indicated that this plant has interesting possibilities as source of oral hypoglycemic agent (Sreedevi and Chaturrvedi, 1993: Rao et al., 2011a, b).
A composition comprising a polar extract of plant parts of Alternanthera sessilis is described for lowering plasma triglycerides level and/or increasing plasma high density lipoprotein (Kim et al., 2011).
The plant exhibits antibacterial activity (Sahu and Chakrabarty, 1994; Unni et al., 2009; Johnson et al., 2010; Valarmathy et al., 2010; Obayed Ullah et al., 2012), and is useful in wound healing (Jalalpure et al., 2008; Nagori and Solanki, 2011).
Alternanthera sessilis posses the following activities: antiviral (selectively inhibiting HSV-1) (Ali et al., 1996), antioxidant (Shyamala et al., 2005; Rao et al., 2011c; Sanhita et al., 2012), anti-inflammatory (Subhashini et al., 2010; Sahithi et al., 2011), antidepressant (Gupta and Singh, 2012a), antipyretic (Nayak et al., 2010), antiulcer (Wang et al., 1972), cytotoxic (Sowemimo et al., 2009; George et al., 2010), nootropic (memory enhancing effects) (Gupta and singh, 2012b), and hematinic (Arollado and Osi, 2010).
Extract of the plant reduced the intensity of late blight disease of potato plants (Phukan, 2007).
Histopathological study revealed degenerative and necrotic changes in the liver and kidney in mice, caused by oral administration of water extract of sessile joy weed (Alternanthera sessilis) in high doses (Gayathri et al., 2006).