Breynia cernua (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Breynia cernua (Poiret) Müll. Arg.

Protologue: in DC., Prod. 15(2): 439 (1866).

Synonyms

• Phyllanthus cernuus Poiret (1804),
• Melanthesa rubra Blume (1825),
• Breynia rubra (Blume) Müll. Arg. (1866).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: gembiran (general), imer (Javanese), gamer (Sundanese)
• Papua New Guinea: pilpil (Raluana, East New Britain), pipul (Vunapope, East New Britain), giligili (Losuia, Trobriand Islands)
• Philippines: matang-ulang (Tagalog), bagbagotot (Iloko), tintug (Sulu).

Distribution

The Philippines, Java eastward to New Guinea including the Aru Islands, northern Australia and the Solomon Islands.

Uses

In Java the pounded leaves are applied to swollen legs. In New Guinea the leaves are heated in salt water and mixed with lime and then rubbed on sores and ulcers. A poultice of hot leaves is applied to relieve body pains. Leaf sap is drunk to soothe coughs. An infusion of the bark is used to cure dysentery. Patients with malaria and diarrhoeal complications are washed with a hot solution of boiled leaves of a mixture of plants including B. cernua, to induce sweating, thereby reducing malarial symptoms.

Observations

• A shrub or treelet, up to 2(-7) m tall, glabrous.
• Leaves ovate, 1.7-6.5 cm × 1.2-3.7 cm, length width ratio 1.3-2.1, base attenuate to cuneate, apex obtuse to bluntly acute, margin entire, flat, papery, light green above, tinged glaucous underneath, petiole 1.5-4 mm long, stipules 1.5-2.5 mm long.
• Staminate flowers 1-1.5 mm in diameter, pedicel 2.5-4 mm long, calyx about 1-1.5 mm long, very thick, green, lobes rim-like, androphore 0.7-1 mm high, anthers about 0.7 mm long; pistillate flowers about 3.5 mm in diameter, pedicel about 1.7 mm long, calyx about 2.8 mm long, flat, accrescent in fruit up to 11 mm in diameter, red, lobes about 1.7 mm wide, ovary with stigmas very short, undivided.
• Fruit about 3.5-4 mm × 6-7 mm, red turning black when mature.
• Seed 2.5 mm × 3.3 mm × 2 mm.

B. cernua is a very variable species, the most typical characters being the accrescent pistillate calyx and ovate leaves. It is usually encountered in very disturbed, anthropogenic habitats, and also in coastal vegetation, often on limestone, up to 450 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [33] Airy Shaw, H.K., 1980. The Euphorbiaceae of New Guinea. Kew Bulletin Additional Series VIII. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London, United Kingdom. 243 pp.
• [36] Airy Shaw, H.K., 1983. An alphabetical enumeration of the Euphorbiaceae of the Philippines Islands. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. 56 pp.
• [407] 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.
• [418] Holdsworth, D.K., 1977. Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. Technical Paper No 175. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 123 pp.
• [425] Holdsworth, D.K., 1992. Medicinal plants of the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea. Part I. International Journal of Pharmacognosy 30: 185—190.
• [671] Merrill, E.D., 1923—1926. An enumeration of Philippine flowering plants. 4 volumes. Bureau of Printing, Manila, the Philippines.
• [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.

Main genus page

• Breynia

Authors

• P.C. van Welzen