Amischotolype (PROSEA)
 |
Introduction |
Amischotolype Hassk.
- Protologue: Flora 46: 391 (1863).
- Family: Commelinaceae
- Chromosome number: x= 9, 10
Origin and geographic distribution
Amischotolype comprises approximately 15 species, and occurs in tropical Africa (1 species) and tropical Asia, from India to southern China and New Guinea.
Uses
Some records exist of medicinal applications of Amischotolype roots in Peninsular Malaysia: an infusion or decoction is drunk to treat rheumatism and fever, and both are applied as a poultice against headache.
Young shoots are sometimes cooked and eaten as a vegetable, e.g. those of A. mollissima (Blume) Hassk. in Indonesia.
Properties
The steroid ecdysterone (commisterone) has been isolated from whole A. mollissima plants.
Botany
Robust perennial herbs, often with stems creeping at base and erect higher up. Leaves arranged spirally, simple and entire, lanceolate, petiolate and with cylindrical, usually hairy leaf-sheaths at base. Inflorescence an axillary, dense, often head-like cyme. Flowers bisexual, regular, 3-merous, subsessile to shortly pedicellate; sepals free, subequal, keeled to boat-shaped, accrescent after anthesis; petals free, subequal, about as long as sepals; stamens 6, all fertile, subequal, filaments often bearded; ovary superior, sessile, 3-celled. Fruit a 3-celled capsule, opening loculicidally with 3 valves, each cell 1-2-seeded. Seeds ellipsoid, embedded in a red aril, with linear hilum.
The Amischotolype species treated here are often better known under the name Forrestia . However, this name is incorrect because it was published earlier as a genus name in Rhamnaceae (a synonym of Ceanothus ).
Ecology
Amischotolype occurs in the understorey of lowland and lower montane forest.
Genetic resources
The Amischotolype species treated here are all recorded as endemic to Peninsular Malaysia, although A. griffithii has recently been collected in Borneo. They seem easily liable to genetic erosion, but their status is still unclear as long as Amischotolype remains so poorly studied taxonomically and, as a consequence, the exact areas of distribution of the species are unclear.
Prospects
Very little information is available on all aspects of Amischotolype . More research on phytochemistry and pharmacological properties as well as on botany is still needed before the prospects as medicinal plants can be judged.
Literature
331, 853.
Selection of species
Authors
Noorma Wati Haron
