Clausena heptaphylla (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Clausena heptaphylla (DC.) Steud.

Protologue: Nomencl. bot., ed. 2, 1: 377 (1840).

Synonyms

• Amyris heptaphylla Roxb. (1832),
• Clausena macrophylla Hook.f. (1875).

Vernacular names

• Vietnam: giổi bảy lá.

Distribution

From the Himalayas to Thailand and the Philippines.

Uses

In the Philippines the essential oil from the leaves is used to flavour alcoholic beverages, in the same way as those of C. anisum-olens. The smell is said to have a narcotic action.

Observations

• A shrub or small tree, 1-4 m tall.
• Rachis 15-40 cm long, leaflets 5-11, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, 4-20 cm × 2-7 cm, base oblique, apex long or short acuminate, margin entire or dentate, veins prominent beneath, glabrous or tomentose.
• Panicle terminal, conical, 15-40 cm long, branches glabrous to tomentose.
• Flowers 4-merous, pedicel 1-2 mm long, calyx small, lobes hardly visible, ciliate, sometimes with gland on back, petals ovate, 3-4 mm long, yellowish-white, stamens 8, gland at connective, gynophore saddle-shaped, up to 0.5 mm long, ovary glabrous, quadrangular, style thin, up to 1 mm long, caducous.
• Berry subconical to ovoid, 1-1.6 cm long, apex truncate, orange-red, finely glandular, 1-2-seeded.

C. heptaphylla occurs in open forest, from sea-level up to 2500 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [113] Bhattacharyya, P., Biswas, G.K., Barua, A.K., Saha, C., Roy, I.B. & Chowdhury, B.K., 1993. Clausenalene, a carbazole alkaloid from Clausena heptaphylla. Phytochemistry 33(1): 248—250.

Main genus page

• Clausena

Authors

• G.H. Schmelzer