Blumea lacera (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

1, plant habit; 2, capitulum; 3, marginal flower; 4, disk flower; 5, achene with pappus removed (Iskak Syamsudin)

Blumea lacera (Burm.f.) DC.

Protologue: Wight, Contr. bot. India: 14 (1834).

Synonyms

• Blumea runcinata DC. (1836),
• Blumea thyrsoidea Sch. Bip. (1866),
• Blumea bodinieri Vaniot (1903).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: batu lincar, sembung lalaki (Sundanese), kremahan (Javanese)
• Malaysia: lumai hutan (Peninsular)
• Philippines: damong-mabaho, tubang-kabayo (Tagalog), lamlampaka (Bontoc)
• Thailand: naat wua
• Vietnam: cải ma, dại bi rách.

Distribution

The Cape Verde Islands, tropical Africa, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, China, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Thailand, throughout the Malesian region towards the Marianas (Guam), the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Australia.

Uses

In the Philippines, a decoction of fresh flowers of B. lacera is given before meals to treat bronchitis. Its leaf juice is a useful anthelmintic and is given, mixed with black pepper, for haemorrhages. It is also used as a febrifuge, astringent, deobstruent and stimulant. An astringent eye-lotion has also been prepared from the leaves. Furthermore, it is applied as a diuretic and is useful in several catarrhal afflictions. In Vietnam it is used for its wound-healing properties and in the treatment of sores. The leaves can be eaten as a vegetable. B. lacera contains a strong, camphor-like oil.

Observations

• A herb up to 2.5 m tall, stems erect, tomentose to densely velutinous.
• Leaves elliptical-oblong to oblanceolate or obovate, 3-21 cm × 1-13.5 cm, acute to tapering at base, margin entire to lyrately lobed, coarsely to finely dentate, tomentose to velutinous above, tomentose to woolly below, sessile or shortly petiolate.
• Capitula in axillary and terminal, dense to lax panicles, 5-6.5 mm in diameter, peduncle 2-10 mm long, involucre 4-10 mm long, 5-6-seriate, outer involucral bracts oblanceolate, inner ones linear-lanceolate, all densely velutinous.
• Marginal flowers 3-4 mm long, disk flowers 8-30, 3-4.5 mm long.
• Achene 1-1.3 mm long, ribbed, sparsely pilose, pappus 4-5 mm long, whitish.

B. lacera is highly variable and occurs in sunny to slightly shaded places in grasslands, fields, roadsides and forest edges, up to 2900 m altitude.

Selected sources

• Agarwal, R., Singh, R., Siddiqui, I.R. & Singh, J. 1995. Triterpenoid and prenylated phenol glycosides from Blumea lacera. Phytochemistry 38(4): 935-938.
• Ahammed, J. & Paria, N., 1996. Systematic value of seedling morphology in some Indian Asteraceae. Acta Botanica Indica 24: 49-55.
• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• 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.
• Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1948-1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials & industrial products. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India.
• Gupta, S.C., Khanolkar, U.M., Koul, O. & Saxena, B.N., 1977. Pyrethrin synergistic activitiy by the essential oils of a few Blumea species. Current Science 46(9): 304-305.
• Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• Hussain, S.S. & Siddiqui, M.O., 1995. Specific activity and isozyme pattern of ATPase of Blumea species. Acta Botanica Indica 23(2): 215-217.
• Koster, J.T., 1972. The Compositae of New Guinea III. Blumea 20: 13-226.
• Laakso, I., Seppanen Laakso, T. & Hiltunen, R., 1989. Composition of the essential oil of Blumea lacera DC. (Asteraceae) leaves from Nigeria. Flavour and Fragrance Journal 4(2): 73-75.
• Li, H. L., 1978. Compositae. In: Li, H. L., Liu, T, S., Huang, T. C., Koyama, T. & DeVol, C.E. (Editors): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 4. Epoch Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. pp. 768-965.
• 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.
• Pételot, A., 1952-1954. Les plantes médicinales du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [The medicinal plants of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. 4 volumes. Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques, Saigon, Vietnam.
• Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• Randeria, A.J., 1960. The composite genus Blumea, a taxonomic revision. Blumea 10: 176-317.
• Rao, C.B., Rao, T.N. & Muralikrishna, B., 1977. Flavonoids from Blumea lacera. Planta Medica 31(3): 235-237.
• Singh, M., Alam, S.P. & Siddiqui, M.O., 1996. Study on germination behaviour of Blumea spp. Acta Botanica Indica 24(1): 11-15.
• Soerjani, M., Kostermans, A.J.G.H. & Tjitrosoepomo, G., (Editors) 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. Balai Pustaka, Jakarta, Indonesia. 716 pp.
• Srivastava, R.C. & Shukla, B.K., 1984. The genus Blumea DC. (Asteraceae) in Madhya Pradesh. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 5: 285-291.
• Vu Van Chuyen, 1985. Scientific name of "cai troi"". Tap chi Duoc hoc 2: 15. (in Vietnamese)
• Wild, H., 1969. The Compositae of the Flora Zambesiaca area, 2. Kirkia 7: 121-135.

Main genus page

• Blumea (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• D.S. Alonzo