Antizoma angustifolia (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Medicinal

Antizoma angustifolia (Burch.) Miers ex Harv.

Protologue: Fl. cap. 1: 11 (1860).

Family: Menispermaceae

Synonyms

• Cissampelos angustifolius Burch. (1822).

Origin and geographic distribution

Antizoma angustifolia occurs in Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and northern South Africa.

Uses

A root infusion is drunk as an emetic and purgative, to purify the blood in the treatment of boils, and also to treat stomach-ache, stomach ulcers, colic, diarrhoea and dysentery, kidney stones, liver, gallbladder and bladder complaints, general pain and cough. Women drink a root decoction during pregnancy to keep the foetus mobile and to facilitate childbirth as well as the expulsion of the afterbirth. A decoction from the leaves or roots is drunk or leaves and roots are chewed to treat digestive problems, against general malaise and AIDS.

Properties

Antizoma angustifolia contains large amounts of alkaloids, in the leaves 4.7–10.5 mg/g dry weight. The diversity of alkaloids present is remarkable. The leaves contain the proaporphines crotsparine, pronuciferine and traces of glaziovine and the bisbenzyl-isoquinoline dioxines cissacapine and insularine. The stem contains crotsparine and glaziovine. The root contains crotsparine, glaziovine, pronuciferine, the aporphine bulbocapnine and the morphinane salutaridine. Traces of other alkaloids were also found, but could not be identified. Crotsparine seems to be the main alkaloid in the leaves, accounting for 72% of the total alkaloids. Populations from different provenances vary considerably in their alkaloid content; salutaridine was found in only one sample plant from Pretoria (South Africa).

Description

Dioecious evergreen shrub up to 3 m tall, sometimes with long, rambling branches; young stems longitudinally striped, glabrous to densely hairy. Leaves alternate, simple and entire, grey-green; stipules absent; petiole up to 5 mm long, glabrous or hairy, with a dorsal spine on the stem just below the insertion; blade oblong to obovate, up to 8 cm × 2 cm, base obtuse to truncate, apex rounded to slightly notched, with mucro, leathery, hairy, palmately veined in broader leaves, pinnately in narrow leaves. Male inflorescence a condensed axillary fascicle, sometimes strongly branched; female inflorescence a few-flowered axillary fascicle on short side-branches or flowers solitary. Flowers small; pedicel up to 2.5 mm long, with joint at base; male flowers with (3–)4(–5) fused sepals, broadly obovate to spatulate, 1–2.5 mm × 0.5–2 mm, pale green or pale brown, glabrous or slightly short-hairy outside, petals 4, fused into a cup or saucer 0.5–2 mm in diameter, stamens (2–)4–5(–7), fused into a column 0.5–1 mm long; female flowers with 2(–4) sepals, rhomboid to obovate, 1–2 mm × 1–1.5 mm, slightly hairy outside, petals 2(–4), broadly oblanceolate to broadly obovate, 0.5–1.5 mm long, staminodes sometimes present, ovary superior, c. 1 mm long, glabrous or hairy, transversely grooved, style short, stigma lobed. Fruit an ovoid drupe; stone horseshoe-shaped, 1-seeded. Seed horseshoe-shaped, cotyledons appressed.

Antizoma angustifolia flowers from October to April. It is frost tender.

Other botanical information

Antizoma is closely related to Cissampelos and comprises 3 species, which all occur in southern Africa. Antizoma angolensis Exell & Mendonça is endemic to Angola. Antizoma miersiana Harv. is endemic to southern Namibia and western South Africa; a root decoction is drunk to treat stomach ulcers. Antizoma miersiana is similar to Antizoma angustifolia in its rich diversity of isoquinoline alkaloids.

Ecology

Antizoma angustifolia occurs in dry bushland, usually associated with Acacia species, at 750–1700 m altitude.

Management

Antizoma angustifolia is only collected from the wild.

Genetic resources

Antizoma angustifolia is fairly widely distributed and does not seem to be in danger of genetic erosion.

Prospects

The diversity of traditional uses and of the alkaloids present in Antizoma angustifolia warrants further pharmacological research.

Major references

• de Wet, H., 2005. An ethnobotanical and chemotaxonomic study of South African Menispermaceae. PhD thesis, Faculty of Science, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa. 450 pp.

• de Wet, H., van Heerden, F.R. & van Wyk, B.E., 2004. Alkaloids of Antizoma angustifolia (Menispermaceae). Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 32: 1145–1152.

• de Wet, H. & van Wyk, B.E., 2008. An ethnobotanical survey of southern African Menispermaceae. South African Journal of Botany 74(1): 2–9.

• von Koenen, E., 2001. Medicinal, poisonous and edible plants in Namibia. Klaus Hess Verlag, Göttingen, Germany. 336 pp.

• Watt, J.M. & Breyer-Brandwijk, M.G., 1962. The medicinal and poisonous plants of southern and eastern Africa. 2nd Edition. E. and S. Livingstone, London, United Kingdom. 1457 pp.

Other references

• Dekker, T.G., Fourie, T.G., Matthee, E. & Snyckers, F.O., 1988. A morphinan alkaloid from Antizoma angustifolia. Journal of Natural Products 51(3): 584.

• de Wet, H., van Heerden, F.R. & van Wyk, B.E., 2005. Alkaloids of Antizoma miersiana (Menispermaceae). Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 33(8): 799–807.

• Leistner, O.A., 2000. Seed plants of southern Africa: families and genera. National Botanical Institute, Pretoria, South Africa. 775 pp.

• Neuwinger, H.D., 2000. African traditional medicine: a dictionary of plant use and applications. Medpharm Scientific, Stuttgart, Germany. 589 pp.

• SEPASAL, 2008. Antizoma angustifolia. [Internet] Survey of Economic Plants for Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (SEPASAL) database. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Richmond, United Kingdom. http://www.kew.org/ ceb/sepasal/. February 2008.

Author(s)

• L.P.A. Oyen, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Correct citation of this article

Oyen, L.P.A., 2008. Antizoma angustifolia (Burch.) Miers ex Harv. In: Schmelzer, G.H. & Gurib-Fakim, A. (Editors). PROTA (Plant Resources of Tropical Africa / Ressources végétales de l’Afrique tropicale), Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 3 April 2025.

• See the Prota4U database.