Psychotria ipecacuanha (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Psychotria ipecacuanha (Brot.) Stokes

Protologue: Bras. Bot. Mat. med. 1: 365 (1812).

Family: Rubiaceae

Synonyms

• Cephaelis ipecacuanha (Brot.) A. Rich. (1818).

Vernacular names

• Ipecac, ipecacuanha (En).

Distribution

Native to South America (Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia) and Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua). Widely cultivated in the semi-humid and humid tropics.

Uses

The dried rhizomes have long been an important medicine as an emetic, expectorant and for amoebic dysentery, and also in the treatment of bilharzia, guinea worms and sores. In small doses the drug is a stimulant, increasing appetite and facilitating digestion. In larger doses it is an expectorant and diaphoretic and in even larger doses it is nauseating and emetic. It is used in the form of syrup, powder, tinctures and lozenges.

Observations

• A small, straggling shrub, up to 30 cm tall, young branches densely short-hairy, glabrous when mature, main rhizome thick, compact, horizontal rhizomes 3-8, slender, whitish when young, thick and brownish when older, with transverse furrows.
• Leaves elliptical or obovate, 5-9 cm × 2.5-5.5 cm, base acute, apex shortly acuminate, petiole 0.5-1 cm long, stipules deeply divided into 8-10 lobes, 5-7 mm long; involucrum shortly hairy, 1-3 cm long.
• Inflorescence corymbiform.
• Flowers white, calyx small, short pubescent, corolla 5-6 mm long, sparsely hairy outside, tube inflated above the middle, long hairs at base inside, lobes acute.
• Berry ellipsoid, about 7 mm long, 6-ribbed.

In South-East Asia, P. ipecacuanha occurs only in cultivation in per-humid climate, at low altitudes.

Selected sources

• [126] Bremer, B., 1996. Phylogenetic studies within Rubiaceae and relationships to other families based on molecular data. In: Robbrecht, E., Puff, C. & Smets, E. (Editors): Second International Rubiaceae Conference. Proceedings. Opera Botanica Belgica 7: 33—50.
• [130] Bruneton, J., 1995. Pharmacognosy, phytochemistry, medicinal plants. Technique & Documentation Lavoisier, Paris, France. 915 pp.
• [134] Burkill, H.M., 1985—2000. The useful plants of West tropical Africa. 2nd Edition. 5 volumes. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. Vol. 1 (1985), Families A—D, 960 pp.; Vol. 2 (1994), Families E—I, 636 pp.; Vol. 3 (1995), Families J—L, 857 pp.; Vol. 4 (1997), Families M—R, 969 pp; Vol. 5 (2000), Families S—Z, 686 pp.
• [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.
• [151] Cavin, J.C., Krassner, S.M. & Rodriguez, E., 1987. Plant-derived alkaloids active against Trypanosoma cruzi. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 19(1): 89—94.
• [170] Chatterjee, S., Yonjan, B. & Nandi, R., 1987. Effect of hardening of seedlings of Cinchona and Ipecac on growth performance, biomass production and alkaloid yield. Acta Horticulturae 208: 131—139.
• [399] Hayashi, T., Smith, F.T. & Lee, K.H., 1987. Antitumor agents. 89. Psychorubrin, a new cytotoxic naphthoquinone from Psychotria rubra and its structure-activity relationships. Journal of Medicinal Chemistry 30(11): 2005—2008.
• [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.
• [489] Jha, S., Sahu, N.P. & Mahato, S.B., 1988. Production of the alkaloids emetine and cephaeline in callus cultures of Cephaelis ipecacuanha. Planta Medica 54(6): 504—506.
• [643] Mallick, U.C., Chatterjee, S.K. & Sahu, S.K., 1989. Effect of different levels of N, P and K on dry matter yield and alkaloid content of ipecac (Cephaelis ipecacuanha). Orissa Journal of Horticulture 17(1—2): 74—78.
• [844] Rodriguez, I.A., Serra, A.G.P. & Moura, M.G., 1995. Preliminary studies on flowering and fruiting of Psychotria ipecacuanha (Brot.) Stokes (ipeca) in the germplasm bank in Belem, Para State, Brazil. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi Serie Botanica 11(1): 89—97. (in Portuguese)
• [1036] Veeraragavanantham, D., Balakrishnan, R. & Md Abdul Khader, 1988. A note on seed germination in ipecac (Cephaelis ipecacuanha). South Indian Horticulture 36(4): 212—213.
• [1037] Veeresham, C., Kokate, C. & Venkateshwarlu, V., 1994. Influence of precursors on production of isoquinoline alkaloids in tissue cultures of Cephaelis ipecacuanha. Phytochemistry 35(4): 947—949.
• [1113] Yoshimatsu, K. & Shimomura, K., 1991. Efficient shoot formation on internodal segments and alkaloid formation in the regenerates of Cephaelis ipecacuanha A. Richard. Plant Cell Reports 9(10): 567—570.

Main genus page

• Psychotria

Authors

• H.C. Ong & S. Brotonogoro