Blumea riparia (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Blumea riparia (Blume) DC.

Protologue: Prodr. 5: 444 (1836).

• Blumea chinensis auct. non (L.) DC.,
• Blumea pubigera auct. non (L.) Merr.

• Indonesia: tombak-tombak (Malay), jonge areuy, lalangkapan (Sundanese)
• Papua New Guinea: mulmul (Wapenamanda, Enga), mungla (Mt Hagen, Western Highlands)
• Philippines: katarai (Sulu), lankat (Manobo), pagang-pagang (Cebu Bisaya)
• Laos: phang nhot pang
• Thailand: mu masang, kamu maeng.

From India and Burma (Myanmar) to Indo-China, southern China, Taiwan, Thailand, throughout the Malesian region to the Solomon Islands.

In Peninsular Malaysia, a decoction of the roots is taken to cure colic. In Papua New Guinea, leaf juice is used to treat sores, boils and sore eyes.

• A scandent shrub, stems sprawling, glabrous though sparsely puberulous above.
• Leaves simple, narrowly elliptical to narrowly obovate, entire, 2.5-13 cm × 1.3-5 cm, rounded at base, margin mucronulate-denticulate, both surfaces glabrous or with a few hairs, shortly petiolate, petiole up to 8 mm long.
• Capitula in terminal and axillary, few-headed racemes, 8-18 mm in diameter, on up to 2.5 cm long peduncles, involucre 8-10 mm long, 5-seriate, outer involucral bracts narrowly ovate, inner ones linear-lanceolate, all pilose.
• Marginal flowers 4-5.5 mm long, disk flowers 5-8, 5-6 mm long.
• Achene about 1 mm long, prominently ribbed, pubescent, pappus 4-6 mm long, white.

B. riparia is found in thickets, open grassy places, forest clearings, along streams and rivers and in light rain forest, up to 2000 m altitude.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Koster, J.T., 1972. The Compositae of New Guinea III. Blumea 20: 13-226.
• 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.
• 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.
• Vidal, J., 1962. Noms vernaculaires de plantes en usage au Laos [Vernacular names of plants used in Laos]. Ecole française d'Extrême Orient, Paris, France. 197 pp.

• Blumea (Medicinal plants)

• D.S. Alonzo