Excoecaria cochinchinensis (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Excoecaria cochinchinensis Lour.

Protologue: Fl. Cochinch.: 612 (1790).

Synonyms

• Excoecaria bicolor (Hassk.) Zoll. ex Hassk. (1855),
• Sapium cochinchinense (Lour.) Kuntze (1898),
• Excoecaria orientalis Pax & Hoffm. (1912).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: daun remek daging, daun sambang darah (Javanese)
• Thailand: ka buea (southwestern), kamlang krabue, krabue jed tua (central)
• Vietnam: dơn tía, dơn lá dỏ, mặt quỉ.

Distribution

Burma (Myanmar), Thailand, Indo-China, southern China, Peninsular Malaysia, often cultivated as an ornamental, or for medicinal purposes.

Uses

In Thailand, the plant is used in traditional medicine for its uterotonic properties. In Indo-China, a decoction of roasted leaves is a traditional remedy for urticaria and herpes zoster. In Java, the leaves with a blood red colour underneath, are externally applied to arrest bleeding. The latex is an irritant and used as a fish poison.

Observations

• A shrub up to 2 m tall, rarely a tree up to 15 m tall, bark grey, becoming fissured.
• Leaves opposite, oblong-ovate, (4-)10-12 cm × 2-4 cm, acuminate, crenulate-serrulate, broadest above the middle, deep purplish-red (or green) beneath.
• Inflorescence unisexual or bisexual, male inflorescence up to 3 cm long, slender.
• Fruit a trigonal capsule, 1 cm in diameter.
• Seed brownish.

Flowering and fruiting occur throughout the year. Two subspecies are distinguished; the leaves of var. viridis (Pax & Hoffm.) Merr. are green underneath. In the literature confusion is possible with Triadica cochinchinensis Lour., which, however, is a tree up to 25 m tall.

Selected sources

• [31] Airy Shaw, H.K., 1972. The Euphorbiaceae of Siam. Kew Bulletin 26: 191—363.
• [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.
• [288] Esser, H.-J., 1999. A partial revision of the Hippomaneae (Euphorbiaceae) in Malesia. Blumea 44(1): 149—215.
• [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.
• [739] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
• [786] Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 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.
• [868] Saralamp, P., Temsiririrkkul, R., Chuakul, W., Riewpaiboon, A., Prathanturarug, S., Suthisisang, C. & Pongcharoensuk, P. (Editors), 1996. Medicinal plants in the Siri Ruckhachati Garden. 2nd Edition. Siambooks and Publications Co., Bangkok, Thailand. 263 pp.
• [1074] Wiriyachitra, P., Hajiwangoh, H., Boonton, P., Adolf, W., Opferkuch, H.J. & Hecker, E., 1985. Investigations of medicinal plants of Euphorbiaceae and Thymelaeaceae occurring and used in Thailand; II. Cryptic irritants of the diterpene ester type from three Excoecaria species. Planta Medica 51(5): 368—371.
• [1093] Xie, J., Chen, Y., Zhao, S. & Zhou, X., 1989. Studies on the chemical constituents of Excoecaria cochinchinensis var. viridis Merr. Chinese Materia Medica 14(5): 36—39. (in Chinese)

Main genus page

• Excoecaria (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• J.L.C.H. van Valkenburg