Clerodendrum indicum (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Clerodendrum indicum (L.) Kuntze

Protologue: Rev. Gen. Pl. 2: 506 (1891).

Synonyms

• Clerodendrum siphonanthus R.Br. (1812),
• Clerodendrum fortunatum Blume ex Hassk. (1844).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: genje (Sundanese), sekar petak (Javanese), ringgo dipo (Palembang)
• Malaysia: ganja ganja, penatoh
• Thailand: thao yaai mom (central), phayaa raak dieo (peninsular), leng chon tai (northern)
• Vietnam: ngọc nữ ấn dộ.

Distribution

Native to India and Nepal, eastward to Burma (Myanmar), southern China, Indo-China, Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia; naturalized in Indonesia, Madagascar, southern USA, West Indies and northern South America.

Uses

In Java, the dried leaves are smoked like cigarettes to relieve asthma. In India, the juice of the tender parts of the plant is used as an external application for skin complaints. The pounded root mixed with ginger are considered useful in asthma, coughs and other pulmonary complaints as well as scrofulous affections. In Burma (Myanmar), resin from the plant is employed for syphilitic rheumatism. In New Caledonia the leaves are used as a bitter tonic and vermifuge. Mention is made of the leaves being employed as a substitute for opium.

Observations

• A shrub or treelet up to 3 m tall, sometimes suffrutescent or even herbaceous, stoloniferous, stems usually very straight or arching, mostly unbranched, hollow, nodes annulate (except the younger ones).
• Leaves linear-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 7.5-23 cm × 0.7-5.5 cm, base attenuate to acute, apex acute or acuminate, mostly entire, glabrous on both surfaces, sessile or petiole 0.3-0.8 cm long.
• Axillary cymes solitary or whorled, 4-6 cm long, 3-7-flowered, terminal panicle up to 45 cm × 25 cm, composed of 3-12 whorls of cymes.
• Calyx very broadly campanulate, tube 5-7 mm long, deeply 5-lobed, lobes 6-10 mm long, green or red, corolla hypocrateriform, tube long and slender, 7.5-14 cm long, lobes 0.8-1.5 cm long, white to yellow, showy, not fragrant, stamens long exserted, purple, fruiting calyx accrescent to 3 cm in diameter, red to purple.
• Drupe 1-1.3 cm in diameter, bright green turning blue-black or reddish-black.

C. indicum easily escapes cultivation through its stolons. In Java cultivated from sea-level up to 1200 m altitude; naturalized in grassy, sunny or slightly shaded localities near human settlements from sea-level up to 500 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [74] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1964—1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1964) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 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.
• [215] 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.
• [375] Gunasegaran, R., Recio, M.C., Alcaraz, M.J. & Nair, A.G.R., 1993. Additional constituents from Clerodendrum indicum L. (Verbenaceae). Pharmazie 48(2): 151—152.
• [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.
• [459] Huxley, A., Griffiths, M. & Levy, M., 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening. 4 volumes. The MacMillan Press Ltd., London, United Kingdom. 3353 pp.
• [571] Kumar, S.K.C. & Müller, K., 1999. Medicinal plants from Nepal; II. Evaluation as inhibitors of lipid peroxidation in biological membranes. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 64(2): 135—139.
• [688] Moldenke, H.N. & Moldenke, A.L., 1983. Verbenaceae. In: Dassanayake, M.D. & Fosberg, F.R. (Editors): A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Vol. 4. Amerind Publishing Co., New Delhi, India. pp. 196—487.

Main genus page

• Clerodendrum

Authors

• J.L.C.H. van Valkenburg & N. Bunyapraphatsara