Alstonia angustifolia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Alstonia angustifolia Wallich ex A.DC.

Protologue: Prodr. 8: 409 (1844).

• Alstonia latifolia Ridley (1923),
• Alstonia beccarii (Benth.) Pichon (1947).

• Indonesia: medang pasir (Bangka), pulai pipit (Palembang)
• Malaysia: pulai penipu paya, pulai penipu bukit, pulai, itai setapoh (Peninsular), pulai pipit (Sarawak), mergalang (Sarawak)
• Vietnam: sữa lá hẹp, lấc

Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Bangka, West Java, Borneo and Sulawesi.

The wood is used as hard alstonia, but because the trees are small, it is often used only locally.

The bark contains alkaloids. In Malaysia, the leaves are externally applied to the spleen area to treat remittent fever. The bark is used for treating malaria.

• A small to medium-sized tree up to 35(-45) m tall, bole fluted or with small or steep buttresses, up to 70 cm in diameter, outer bark smooth, fissured or scaly, inner bark yellowish, without latex.
• Leaves usually in whorls of 3, oblanceolate, 4-18 cm × 1.5-7 cm, acuminate, with 10-20 pairs of secondary veins, petiole 8-30 mm long.
• Inflorescence many-flowered.
• Pedicel 0.5-2 mm long, calyx and corolla densely tomentose outside.
• Follicles glabrous.

A. angustifolia occurs in primary forest, seasonal peat swamps or hillsides, on sandy or granitic soils at 5-750(-1700) m altitude. The density of the wood is about 800 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content.

• [35]Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1963–1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen.
• [89]Browne, F.G., 1955. Forest trees of Sarawak and Brunei and their products. Government Printing Office, Kuching. xviii + 369 pp.
• [146]Cockburn, P.F., 1976–1980. Trees of Sabah. 2 volumes. Sabah Forest Records No 10. Forest Department Sabah, Kuching.
• [344] Ghedira, K., Zeches-Hanrot, M., Richard, B., Massiot, G., Le Men-Olivier, L., Sevenet, T. & Goh, S.H., 1988. Alkaloids from Alstonia angustifolia. Phytochemistry 27(12): 3955—3962.
• [454] Hu, W.L., Zhu, J.P., Prewo, R. & Hesse, M., 1989. Alstogustine and 19-epialstogustine, quaternary indole alkaloids from (stem bark of) Alstonia angustifolia. Phytochemistry 28(7): 1963—1966.
• [370]Kochummen, K.M. & Wong, K.M., 1984. A new Alstonia (Apocynaceae) from the Malay Peninsula and some comments on the genus. Blumea 29: 513–522.
• [455]Markgraf, F., 1974. Florae Malesianae praecursores LIV. Apocynaceae part III. 9. Alstonia. Blumea 22: 20–29.
• [496]Monachino, J., 1949. A revision of the genus Alstonia (Apocynaceae). Pacific Science 3: 133–182.
• [786] Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 pp.
• [619]Sim, H.C., 1982. Malaysian timbers – pulai. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 64. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 7 pp.
• [950] Soerianegara, I. & Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors), 1993. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(1). Timber trees: Major commercial timbers. Pudoc Scientific Publishers, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 610 pp.
• [779]Whitmore, T.C. & Ng, F.S.P. (Editors), 1972–1989. Tree flora of Malaya. A manual for foresters. 4 Volumes. 2nd ed. Malayan Forest Records No 26. Longman Malaysia SDN Berhad, Kuala Lumpur.
• [1083] Wright, C.W., Allen, D., Phillipson, J.D., Kirby, G.C., Warhurst, D.C., Massiot, G. & Le Men-Olivier, L., 1993. Alstonia species: are they effective in malaria treatment? Journal of Ethnopharmacology 40(1): 41—45.

• Alstonia (Medicinal plants)
• Alstonia (Timbers)

• Rudjiman
• Stephen P. Teo