Biophytum adiantoides (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

Biophytum adiantoides Wight ex Edgew. & Hook.f.

Protologue: Fl. Brit. India 1: 437 (1874).

Vernacular names

Burma (Myanmar), southern Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia.

In Peninsular Malaysia, the whole plant is given to small children against stomach troubles.

A perennial shrublet, up to 30 cm tall, stem woody, branched.
Leaves 18-27-jugate, rachis 7-17 cm long, yellowish, terminal leaflets oblong to lanceolate, 9-22 mm × 3-8 mm, widest at or above the middle, other leaflets elliptical to oblong, base asymmetrical, midrib excentric at base, hairy; peduncle 5-20 cm long, up to 9-flowered, puberulous.
Pedicel 5-17 mm long, sepals lanceolate, 4.5-6 mm long, acute, in fruit 5-12-veined, 1.2-2 times as long as the fruit, sometimes with a few glandular hairs, petals lanceolate, 9-10 mm × 1-2.5 mm, apex rounded to truncate, white with yellow base, tristylous, styles in the middle form 2.5 mm long.
Capsule 3-4 mm × 2-3 mm, glabrous.
Seeds 2-3 per cell, 1 mm in diameter, with transverse, tuberculate ridges, puberulous.

B. adiantoides occurs in crevices of limestone rocks along rivers and in open woodland, up to 300 m altitude.

[135] 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.
[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.