Cayratia japonica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Cayratia japonica (Thunb.) Gagnep.

Protologue: Notul. Syst. (Paris) 1: 349 (1911).

Vitis japonica Thunb. (1784), Cissus japonica Willd. (1797), Cissus obovata Lawson (1875).

• Sorrel vine (En)
• Indonesia: dudugan (Siberut)
• Malaysia: lakum, charek merah, pokok riang hutan
• Vietnam: vác nhật.

From Japan and southern China to Indo-China, Malesia and Australia; common in Peninsular Malaysia. Recently occurring as an adventive in Texas (United States).

In Peninsular Malaysia, the boiled leaves, together with onion and lime, are applied to the head for violent headaches. The dried and powdered flowers might be employed for fever. In Sumatra (Indonesia), the aerial parts are applied for fever and malaria. In India, the stem bark is used as an antidote. The long stems can be used for tying purposes.

A rather small, usually evergreen climber, 2-4 m long, stem ridged, often reddish when young, hairy mainly at nodes, tendrils 2-3-fid, usually glabrous, tuber small or absent, root system large; leaves pedate, usually 5-foliolate, petiole 4-8 cm long, central leaflet broadly lanceolate to ovate, 6-10 cm × 3-5.5 cm, lateral leaflets ovate, 3-7(-11) cm × 2-3.5 cm, margins serrate, both surfaces pubescent; inflorescence axillary, cymose corymbiform, primary branches 3, 6-12 cm × 3-4 cm, peduncle 4-8 cm long, flowers small, greenish-white to yellowish; berry subglobose, up to 1 cm in diameter, purplish-blue to black, sometimes white, 2-4-seeded. C. japonica is a variable hairy species, and occurs usually along rainforest margins, brushwood and village margins, from sea-level up to 1500 m altitude.

• 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.

563, 586, 786.

Slamet Sutanti Budi Rahayu