Cyperus rotundus (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

1, young plant with rhizomes and tubers; 2, tubers; 3, flowering plant (Achmad Satiri Nurhaman)

Cyperus rotundus L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 1: 45 (1753).

Vernacular names

• Purple nut grass, purple nut sedge (En)
• Souchet rond (Fr)
• Indonesia: teki (general), mota (Madura), karelawai (Sumba)
• Malaysia: teki, rumput haliya hitan
• Philippines: mutha (Tagalog), ahos-ahos (Bisaya), boto-botones (Bikol)
• Burma (Myanmar): monhnyin-bin
• Cambodia: krâva:nh chru:k
• Laos: hèwz hmu:
• Thailand: yaa haeo muu, yaa khon muu (general)
• Vietnam: củ gấu, hương phụ.

Distribution

C. rotundus is thought to originate from Africa. Now it is widely distributed throughout the warmer parts of the world and it is very common all over South-East Asia.

Uses

C. rotundus is widely used medicinally for various diseases and complaints (see the genus entry). It is also used as a fodder. The tubers are sometimes eaten. The oil extracted from the tubers was formerly used to make soap.

Observations

• A perennial herb with long, slender, stout, wiry, dark brown rhizomes giving rise at intervals of 5-25 cm to tubers, forming tuber chains, tubers subglobose or ellipsoid, 0.5-2.5 cm long, white and succulent when young, turning fibrous brown-blackish, stem slender, 15-30(-75) cm long.
• Leaves 2-6 mm wide, flat, scabrid on the margins in the upper part.
• Inflorescence simple or compound, involucral bracts 2-4(-6), up to 30 cm long, primary rays 3-9, very unequal, up to 10 cm long.
• Spikelets spicately arranged, 10-40(-100)-flowered; stamens 3, stigmas 3.
• Fruit trigonous, oblong-obovoid, brown to black, rarely maturing.

Two subspecies are distinguished: subsp. rotundus and subsp. retzii (Nees) Kük. Subsp. retzii (synonym: C. retzii Nees) differs from subsp. rotundus by its stouter habit (stem 50-75 cm tall), the somewhat broader spikelets (about 2.5 mm wide when ripe) and the paler elliptical-oblong glumes, 3.5-4 mm long; it appears in moist localities, sometimes as a weed, but never as a pest. Subsp. rotundus occurs up to 1000 m altitude in open grasslands, roadsides and waste places, and is often a serious pest in cultivated land, e.g in lowland rice, maize, sugar cane and vegetables.

Selected sources

• Anwar Masood, Sultanul Haq & Saxena, S.K., 1985. Effect of some plant extracts on the larval hatching of Meloidogyne incognita (Kofoid & White, 1919) Chitwood, 1949 III. Indian Forester 111(10): 841-845.
• 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.
• Dharma, A.P., 1981. Indonesische geneeskrachtige planten [Indonesian medicinal plants]. De Driehoek, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 168 pp.
• Flach, M. & Rumawas, F. (Editors), 1996. Plant Resources of South East Asia No 9. Plants yielding non seed carbohydrates. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands. 239 pp.
• 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.
• Holdsworth, D.K., 1977. Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. Technical Paper No 175. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 123 pp.
• Holm, L.G., Plucknett, D.L., Pancho, J.V. & Herberger, J.P., 1977. The world's worst weeds. Distribution and biology. East West Center, the University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu, United States. 609 pp.
• Jain, P. & Sahu, T.R., 1993. An ethnobotanical study of Noradehi Sanctuary Park of Madhya Pradesh, India: native plant remedies for scorpion sting and snake bite. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 17(2): 315-328.
• Kern, J.H., 1974. Cyperaceae. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (General editor): Flora Malesiana. Series 1, Vol. 7. Noordhoff, Leyden, the Netherlands. pp. 435-753.
• Kokate, C.K., Tipnis, H.P. & Gonsalves, L.X., 1980. Anti insect and juvenile hormone mimicking activities of essential oils of Adhatoda vasica, Piper longum and Cyperus rotundus. In: 4th Symposium on Medicinal Plants and Spices, 15-19 September 1980, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. p. 154 (summary only).
• Komai, K., Tang, C.S. & Nishimoto, R.K., 1991. Chemotypes of Cyperus rotundus in Pacific rim and basin: distribution and inhibitory activities of their essential oils. Journal of Chemical Ecology 17(1): 1-8.
• Mercado, B.L., 1979. A monograph on Cyperus rotundus L. Biotrop Bulletin No 15. SEAMEO Regional Center for Tropical Biology, Bogor, Indonesia. 63 pp.
• Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
• Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• Shanmugasundaram, E.R.B., Akbar, G.K.M. & Shanmugasundaram, K.R., 1991. Brahmighritham, an Ayurvedic herbal formula for the control of epilepsy. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 33(3): 269-276.
• Thebtaranonth, C., Thebtaranonth, Y., Wanauppathamkul, S. & Yuthavong, Y., 1995. Antimalarial sesquiterpenes from tubers of Cyperus rotundus. Phytochemistry 40: 125-128.
• Vedavathy, S. & Rao, K.N., 1991. Antipyretic activity of six indigenous medicinal plants of Tirumala Hills, Andhra Pradesh, India. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 33(1-2): 193-196.
• Vu Van Dien & Pham Xuan Sinh, 1993. On the difference between C. rotundus L. and C. stoloniferus Retz. Pharmaceutical Journal (Hanoi) 4: 20-21. (in Vietnamese)
• Weenen, H., Nkunya, M.H.H., Bray, D.H., Mwasumbi, L.B., Kinabo, L.S. & Kilimali, V.A.E.B., 1990. Antimalarial activity of Tanzanian medicinal plants. Planta Medica 56: 368-370.
• Weenen, H., Nkunya, M.H.H., Bray, D.H., Mwasumbi, L.B., Kinabo, L.S., Kilimali, V.A.E.B. & Wijnberg, J.B.P.A., 1990. Antimalarial compounds containing an @alfa@,@beta@ unsaturated carbonyl moiety from Tanzanian medicinal plants. Planta Medica 56: 371-373.
• Westphal, E. & Jansen, P.C.M. (Editors), 1989. Plant Resources of South East Asia, A selection. Pudoc, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 322 pp.

Main genus page

• Cyperus (Medicinal plants)
• See also Cyperus (PROSEA) for the use as Carbohydrate.

Authors

• Nguyen Khac Khoi