Blumea arnakidophora (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Blumea arnakidophora Mattf.

Protologue: Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 69: 286 (1938).

Distribution

Borneo (Mt Kinabalu) and New Guinea.

Uses

In Papua New Guinea the leaf juice is used to treat boils, sores and sore eyes, whereas in New Britain, the leaves and roots are used against stomach-ache.

Observations

• A small shrub up to 2 m tall, stems erect, woolly tomentose.
• Leaves lanceolate to oblanceolate, 4-29 cm × 1.5-8 cm, tapering at base, margin mucronulate-serrate, velutinous above, woolly tomentose below, sessile or nearly so.
• Capitula in large terminal panicles, 12-15 mm in diameter, peduncle 2-15 mm long, involucre 9-10 mm long, involucral bracts linear to linear-lanceolate, densely lanuginose.
• Marginal flowers 4.5-6 mm long, disk flowers 7-18, 4.5-6 mm long.
• Achene 1 mm long, ribbed, sparsely pubescent, pappus 4-6 mm long, pale reddish-yellow.

B. arnakidophora occurs in grassy, secondary growth, forest edges and roadsides, at 1300-2700 m altitude.

Selected sources

• Holdsworth, D.K., 1977. Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. Technical Paper No 175. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 123 pp.
• Holdsworth, D.K. & Rali, T., 1989. A survey of medicinal plants of the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 27: 1-8.
• Kobayashi, A., Hagihara, K., Kajiyama, S., Kanzaki, H. & Kawazu, K., 1995. Antifungal compounds induced in the dual culture with Phytolacca americana callus and Botrytis fabae. Zeitschrift für Naturforschung, Section C, Biosciences 50(5-6): 398-402.
• Randeria, A.J., 1960. The composite genus Blumea, a taxonomic revision. Blumea 10: 176-317.

Main genus page

• Blumea (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• D.S. Alonzo