Rauvolfia verticillata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Rauvolfia verticillata (Lour.) Baillon

Protologue: Bull. Soc. Linn. Paris 1: 768 (1888).

Synonyms

• Dissolena verticillata Lour. (1790),
• Rauvolfia chinensis (Spreng.) Hemsl. (1889),
• Rauvolfia perakensis King & Gamble (1907).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: salung-salung (Sumatra)
• Malaysia: pokok batu pelir kambing (Peninsular)
• Thailand: cheepuk (northern), chaek (Trang), yaa kae haak khom (Chiang Mai)
• Vietnam: ba gạc vòng, tích tiên, sam tô.

Distribution

India, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, southern China, Taiwan, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Lombok, Borneo and the Philippines (Luzon).

Uses

The root is valued in Indo-Chinese and Chinese medicine as hypertensive and sedative. Fresh leaves are applied externally to treat snake bites, wounds and inflamed eyes.

Observations

• A shrub up to 3 m tall.
• Leaves (2-)3-verticillate, elliptical, (8-)10-20 cm × (2-)4-6 cm, petiole up to 1.5 cm long.
• Flowers with narrow cylindrical corolla tube much longer than calyx.
• Fruit consisting of 1-2 elliptical drupelets.

R. verticillata occurs in lowland to montane rain forest and monsoon forest, up to 1700 m altitude, often in open places in hills and mountains, e.g. along rivers, near villages and rice fields.

Selected sources

• [49] Allen, E.F., 1958. Notes on the cultivation of Rauwolfia in Malaya. Malayan Agricultural Journal 41(2): 100-105.
• [118] Banerjee, N. & Sharma, A.K., 1983. Cytotaxonomy, tissue culture and alkaloids of Rauwolfia L. Nucleus 26(3): 197-207.
• [202] Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I-Z) pp. 1241-2444.
• [850] Li, H.-L., 1978. Apocynaceae. In: Li, H.-L., Liu, T.-S., Huang, T.-C., Koyama, T. & DeVol, C.E. (Editors): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 4. Epoch Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. pp. 202-221.
• [879] Ly, T.D., 1986. Die Familie Apocynaceae Juss. in Vietnam. Teil 2: Spezieller Teil (1) [The family Apocynaceae Juss. in Vietnam. Part 2: special part (1).]. Feddes Repertorium 97(7-8): 405-468.
• [905] Markgraf, F., 1984. Florae Malesianae Praecursores LXIV. Apocynaceae VI. Rauvolfia. Blumea 30: 157-167.
• [1035] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
• [1564] Whitmore, T.C. & Ng, F.S.P. (Editors), 1972-1989. Tree flora of Malaya. A manual for foresters. 2nd Edition. 4 volumes. Malayan Forest Records No 26. Longman Malaysia Sdn. Berhad, Kuala Lumpur & Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Main genus page

• Rauvolfia (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Tran Dinh Ly & Pham Duy Mai