Merremia mammosa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Merremia mammosa (Lour.) Hallier f.

Protologue: Teysmannia 7: 164 (1897).

Family: Convolvulaceae

Synonyms

• Convolvulus mammosus Lour. (1790),
• Ipomoea gomezii Clarke (1883).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: blanar, widara upas (Javanese), hailale (Ambon)
• Malaysia: widara upas
• Philippines: angcoa
• Vietnam: bìm vú.

Distribution

India, Andaman Islands, Indo-China, introduced and cultivated in Java for the edible roots, formerly also in Bali, the Moluccas, Papua New Guinea and the Philippines; locally naturalized in Madura.

Uses

In Indonesia, the sap of the fresh tubers is widely drunk in affections of the throat and respiratory organs, dysentery, fever, and externally applied for snakebite, burns, fevers, dysentery, poisoning, chest and throat affections and oedema. It is mildly purgative. In Malaysia, it is often cultivated in gardens as a medicinal or for the edible tubers.

Observations

• A perennial, glabrous twiner, 3-6 m long, stems annual, terete, finely striate in the older parts, tubers fusiform to globose, fasciculate, 10-25 cm long, with a milky juice.
• Leaves broadly ovate to orbicular, 6-12 cm × 4.5-12 cm, base cordate, apex abruptly acuminate, margin entire, petiole 6-10 cm long.
• Flowers 1-3 together, peduncle 3-15 cm long, bracts linear-lanceolate, caducous; flower-buds narrowly ovoid, acute, pedicel 12-15 mm long, clavate, sepals subequal, 24-30 mm long, concave, outer ones broadly ovate-elliptical, corolla broadly funnel-shaped, 7-8 cm long, white, minute glands outside, mid-petaline bands distinctly veined, base of filaments hairy, anthers spirally twisted.
• Capsule ovoid, about 1,5 cm in diameter, enclosed by permanent calyx.
• Seed 8 mm long, greyish to black, with long, brownish hairs along the margins.

M. mammosa occurs in Java from sea-level up to 500 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [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.
• [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.
• [647] Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of agricultural and horticultural plants in cultivation (without ornamentals)]. Schultze-Motel, J. et al. (Editors). 2nd Edition. 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.
• [762] Ono, M., Yamada, F., Noda, N., Kawasaki, T. & Miyahara, K., 1993. Resin glycosides XVIII. Determination by Mosher's method of the absolute configurations of mono-and dihydroxyfatty acids originated from resin glycosides. Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin 41(6): 1023—1026.
• [816] Raharsih, 1987. The effects of Merremia mammosa (Lour.) Hallier f. extracts on the blood glucose of male white rats. In: Research of the Medicinal Plants of the University of Indonesia. Proceedings VII. Department of Health, Jakarta, Indonesia. pp. 165—166. (in Indonesian)

Main genus page

• Merremia

Authors

• Muhammad Mansur