Combretum quadrangulare (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Combretum quadrangulare Kurz

Protologue: Journ. As. Soc. Beng. 43,2: 188 (1874).

Synonyms

• Combretum attenuatum Wallich (1831).

Vernacular names

• Cambodia: song ke, sang ke
• Thailand: sakae (central), kae (north-eastern), chong khae (northern)
• Vietnam: chưn bầu, chân bầu, trâm bầu.

Distribution

Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and Indo-China; cultivated in Malesian gardens as an ornamental.

Uses

In Thai traditional medicine, the roots are employed in the treatment of abscesses, gonorrhoea, as an alterative and anthelmintic. The leaves are used in the treatment of wounds, as an antipyretic, and against dysentery. The sapwood is used in the treatment of threadworm. The seeds or the whole plant are used in the treatment of roundworm, and gastro-intestinal ailments associated with intestinal parasitism in children. The whole plant is further employed against abscesses in paediatrics, and against stomach-ache. In Indo-China, the roasted seeds, bark or the leaves are used as an anthelmintic against Ascaris. It was formerly planted for raising a scale insect Laccifer lacca to produce lac, a raw material for the production of shellac.

Observations

• A shrub or tree up to 12 m tall, branches quadrangular.
• Leaves usually opposite, obovate, 5-13 cm × 3-7 cm, base acute, apex obtuse or rounded, densely scaly, soon glabrescent, petiole 5-10 mm long, ridged and flattened.
• Inflorescence an axillary and terminal spike, 2.5-7.5 cm long.
• Flowers mostly 4-merous, densely scaly, subsessile, 5-6 mm long, receptacle stipitate above ovary, abruptly dilated into the cup-shaped calyx-limb, petals broadly ovate, easily shed, yellowish.
• Pseudocarp thinly 4-winged, about 2 cm × 2 cm.
• Seed fusiform, 4 mm wide.

C. quadrangulare is found in lowland forest and can tolerate saline conditions.

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.
• [85] Banskota, A.H., Tezuka, Y., Tran, K.Q., Tanaka, K., Saiki, I. & Kadota, S., 2000. Methyl quadrangularates A—D and related triterpenes from Combretum quadrangulare. Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin Tokyo 48(4): 496—504.
• [86] Banskota, A.H., Tezuka, Y., Tran, K.Q., Tanaka, K., Saiki, I. & Kadota, S., 2000. Thirteen novel cycloartane-type triterpenes from Combretum quadrangulare. Journal of Natural Products 63(1): 57—64.
• [263] Doan Thi Nhu, Do Huy Bich, Pham Kim Man, Nguyen Thuong Thuc, Bui Xuan Chuong & Pham Duy Mai (Editors), 1990. Les plantes médicinales au Vietnam. Livre 2. Médicine traditionelle et pharmacopée [The medicinal plants of Vietnam. Volume 2. Traditional medicine and pharmacopoeia]. Agence de coopération Culturelle et Technique, Paris, France. 189 pp.
• [337] Ganzera, M., Ellmerer-Muller, E.P. & Stuppner, H., 1998. Cycloartane triterpenes from Combretum quadrangulare. Phytochemistry 49(3): 835—838.
• [589] Lecompte, O., 1969. Combretaceae. In: Tardieu-Blot, M.-L. (Editor): Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêtnam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. Vol. 10. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. 119 pp.
• [739] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
• [788] Pételot, A., 1952—1954. Les plantes médicinales du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [The medicinal plants of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. 4 volumes. Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques, Saigon, Vietnam.
• [867] Saralamp, P., Chuakul, W., Temsiririrkkul, R. & Clayton, T. (Editors), 1996. Medicinal plants in Thailand. Vol. I. Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. 219 pp.

Main genus page

• Combretum

Authors

• Noorma Wati Haron