Rauvolfia serpentina (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

1, plant habit; 2, piece of root; 3, flower; 4, opened corolla; 5, fruit; 6, stone (Iskak Syamsudin)

Rauvolfia serpentina (L.) Benth. ex Kurz

Protologue: For. Fl. Burma 2: 171 (1877).

• Ophioxylon serpentinum L. (1753).

• Indonesia: pule pandak (Javanese)
• Thailand: khem daeng (northern), ra yom (central), ka yom (peninsular)
• Vietnam: ba gạc ấn dộ, ba gạc hoa dỏ, ba gạc thuốc.

India, Sri Lanka, Indo-China, southern China (Yunnan), Thailand, northern Peninsular Malaysia, Java and the Lesser Sunda Islands (Flores, Timor); cultivated in Pakistan, Nepal, India, Java, Ambon, Vietnam, southern China and Georgia.

An extract of the root rind is considered as a highly effective remedy against high blood pressure and to relieve the central nervous system. Besides this, it is also used to treat dysentery, diarrhoea, psychoses, insanity, epilepsy and snake bites, and to stimulate uterine contraction and to promote the expulsion of the foetus. In Thailand, besides these uses, the roots are used to enhance appetite and as a galactagogue. In a mixture with other plants, R. serpentina is also used to treat cholera and fever. The leaf juice is applied against opacity of the cornea and to treat wounds and itch. The root is also used as a vermifuge in veterinary medicine.

• A small shrub up to 0.6(-1) m tall, with prominent tuberous usually unbranched root and usually unbranched slender stem.
• Leaves opposite or 3(-5)-verticillate, oblanceolate or obovate, 7-16 cm × 3-9 cm, petiole up to 1.5 cm long.
• Flowers with narrowly cylindrical tube much longer than calyx.
• Fruit consisting of 1-2 globose drupelets connate at base.

R. serpentina occurs in sunny or shaded places in well-drained rain forest and secondary thickets up to 2100 m altitude, sometimes as a weed in sugar cane fields.

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• Rauvolfia (Medicinal plants)

• Tran Dinh Ly & Pham Duy Mai