Gardenia pseudopsidium (PROSEA)
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Introduction |
Gardenia pseudopsidium (Blanco) Fern.-Vill.
- Protologue: Nov. app.: 109 (1880).
- Family: Rubiaceae
- Chromosome number: 2n= unknown
Vernacular names
- Philippines: malabayabas, sulipa (Tagalog), kalanigi (Panay Bisaya).
Origin and geographic distribution
G. pseudopsidium occurs in many parts of the Philippines.
Uses
The fruits of G. pseudopsidium are used to treat smallpox.
G. jasminoides Ellis is much more commonly used in traditional medicine: the roots to treat headache, dyspepsia, nervous disorders and fever, bark to treat dysentery, leaves in febrifugous poultices and to treat sore eyes, flowers as emollient, and fruits to treat jaundice, dysentery, and diseases of kidneys and lungs. However, its main uses are as a dye, the fruits being used to colour food and occasionally textiles yellow, and as an ornamental.
In Thailand seeds of G. sootepensis Hutch. are boiled with water and the solution is used as a shampoo to kill lice.
Several Gardenia species are used in traditional medicine in Africa, e.g. to treat fever, smallpox, leprosy, sleeping sickness, ophthalmia, after childbirth and as an aphrodisiac.
Several species are beautiful ornamentals, which flower profusely. Gardenia wood is sometimes used for turnery, carving and implements. The fruits of some species are edible.
Properties
There is no information on phytochemistry or pharmacological properties of G. pseudopsidium . However, much research has been done on the pharmacology of G. jasminoides . The iridoid glycoside geniposide is one of the constituents of its fruits; in mice it showed an antithrombotic effect in vivo due to the suppression of platelet aggregation, and has the ability to inhibit P4503A monooxygenase and increase glutathione content in rat liver, supporting its use in traditional Chinese medicine for the treatment of hepatic and inflammatory diseases. It also showed anti-inflammatory effects when used for treating soft tissue injuries in animals. Geniposide orally administered to rats is transformed in the intestine to genipin, which acts as a genuine choleretic. However, at a high oral dose of 2000 mg/kg geniposide showed hepatotoxic activity in rats. Another iridoid glycoside, deacetylasperulosidic acid methyl ester, also isolated from G. jasminoides fruits, lowered the blood glucose level in normal mice.
Crocetin is a major component of G. jasminoides fruits. This carotenoid pigment is the basis for the dye prepared from the fruits. In tests with mice, it suppressed 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-promoted skin carcinogenesis, possibly via its antioxidant activity. Crocetin also showed inhibitory effect on benzo(a)pyrene-induced genotoxicity and neoplastic transformation in C3H10T1/2 cells, and it protected against oxidative damage in rat primary hepatocytes.
Gardenic acid and gardenodic acid isolated from G. jasminoides fruits may be used as early pregnancy-terminating agents. The lipoxygenase inhibitor 3-caffeoyl-4-sinapoylquinic acid was isolated from the fruit.
Botany
A small tree. Leaves opposite, simple and entire, crowded at the ends of branchlets, obovate-oblong, 11-22 cm × 4-10 cm, cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, shortly petioled; stipules entire and connate. Flowers solitary in leaf axils, bisexual, usually 5-merous, fragrant; calyx with 5-ridged tube and 10 linear segments alternating longer and shorter; corolla with long tube 5-6 cm long and large lobes, white but turning yellow; stamens inserted just below the corolla throat, alternating with corolla lobes, anthers sessile; ovary inferior, 1-celled, style clavate. Fruit an ovoid to subglobose berry 5-7 cm long, with obscure longitudinal ridges, crowned by the calyx segments, many-seeded.
Gardenia comprises about 120 species and occurs in Africa, tropical and subtropical Asia, northern Australia and islands of the Pacific. About 10 species occur within the Malesian region. There is no taxonomic study of the genus for South-East Asia, and the status of G. pseudopsidium is unclear. It is considered to be closely allied to G. carinata Wallich ex Roxb. from Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia, and should be compared with this and other species.
Ecology
G. pseudopsidium occurs in lowland primary forest.
Genetic resources
G. pseudopsidium is restricted to a type of habitat, i.e. lowland primary forest, which is under much pressure in the Philippines. It may be liable to genetic erosion.
Prospects
It is still unclear whether Gardenia species such as G. pseudopsidium have similar activities as G. jasminoides , but more research may be worthwhile. G. jasminoides exhibits very interesting pharmacological properties, and it certainly has promising prospects as a medicinal plant of wider use in South-East Asia.
Literature
117, 621, 760.
Other selected sources
27, 120, 173, 200, 377, 447, 542, 632, 725, 883, 905, 1027.
Main genus page
Authors
R.H.M.J. Lemmens
