Salacia chinensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Salacia chinensis L.

Family: Celastraceae

Synonyms

• Salacia prinoides DC.,
• Salacia latifolia Wallich ex Lawson.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: akan pelanduk (Sumatra), kajipot, mata kantjil (Javanese), wolè sèroso (Moluccas)
• Malaysia: mata kuching hutan, rakiat kechil
• Philippines: matang-úlang (Tagalog)
• Thailand: lum nok (peninsular), matom kai (northern).

Distribution

Found widely distributed but scattered from tropical Africa, coastal India, Indo-China and Malesia to Solomon Islands, northern Queensland, Caroline Islands and Hainan.

Uses

Fruits, which contain a little pulp, are eaten. The roots are astringent. In the Philippines a decoction from the roots is used against amenorrhoea and is supposed to cause abortion.

Observations

• Liana or scandent shrub, rarely small tree, 3-10 m long.
• Leaves rather discolourous.
• Fruit a globose drupe, sometimes broadly ellipsoid, 1-2.5 cm in diameter, red or orange-red when ripe, 1-seeded.

Occurs in forests along sea-shores and sandy river banks, in lowland primary forest up to 450 m. Often classified in Hippocrateaceae.

Selected sources

• Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. 2nd ed. 2 Volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2444 pp.

• Heyne, K., 1927. De nuttige planten van Nederlandsch Indië [The useful plants of the Dutch East Indies]. 2nd ed. 3 Volumes. Departement van Landbouw, Nijverheid en Handel in Nederlandsch Indië. 1953 pp.

• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950-. Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4-10. Centre for Research and Development in Biology, Bogor, Indonesia, and Rijksherbarium, Leiden, the Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London.

Authors

P.C.M. Jansen, J. Jukema, L.P.A. Oyen, T.G. van Lingen