Today's Mooligai karisalankanni

The plant has traditional uses in Ayurveda. In India, it is known as bhangra or bhringaraj. Wedelia calendulacea is known by the same names, so the white-flowered E. alba is called white bhangra and the yellow-flowered W. calendulacea is called yellow bhangra.[7]

In Southeast Asia, the dried whole plant is used in traditional medicine,[8] although there is no high-quality clinical research to indicate such uses are effective. The Balinese cook it as a vegetable, the Javanese consume this herb (orang-aring or urang-aring) as part of their lalap, they also infuse it with coconut oil as a kind of hair oil popular until the 1970s[9] Its leaves are extracted as a black hair dye, and in tattooing.[10]