Oldenlandia corymbosa (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

1, plant habit; 2, flowering and fruiting stem; 3, flower; 4, infructescence (Iskak Syamsudin)

Oldenlandia corymbosa L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 1: 119 (1753).

• Hedyotis corymbosa (L.) Lamk (1792).

• Malaysia: siku-siku, siku dengan, pokok telur belangkas (Peninsular)
• Philippines: malaulasiman, ulasiman-aso (Tagalog)
• Thailand: yaa linnguu (Bangkok)
• Vietnam: lưỡi rắn, cóc mẳn.

Probably native to Africa and India, but now with pantropical distribution; throughout Malesia.

The leaves are commonly used for poulticing to treat sores and sore eyes. The entire plant is used in decoction as a febrifuge and stomachic. In Indo-China, it is also used as antirheumatic. In India, the plant is a common ingredient in mixtures used internally to treat fever and as a tonic. It is also used to treat jaundice. The roots are reported to have vermifuge properties.

• A prostrate to decumbent, divaricately branched annual herb up to 60 cm long, branches 4-angled.
• Leaves narrowly elliptical to linear-lanceolate, up to 3(-5) cm long.
• Flowers in a (1-)3-8-flowered umbel-like corymb, corolla with spreading lobes, white or pinkish.
• Fruit depressed obovoid or broadly obovoid.
• Seeds obconical to depressed obconical, laterally compressed.

O. corymbosa is a weed in fields, roadsides, lawns and gardens, preferably in not to wet, sunny, stony locations, usually up to 800 m altitude, but sometimes up to 1500 m.

• [97] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• [202] 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.
• [279] Corbineau, F. & C"me, D., 1981. Some particularities of the germination of Oldenlandia corymbosa L. seeds (tropical Rubiaceae). Israel Journal of Botany 29: 157-167.
• [537] Halford, D.A., 1992. Review of the genus Oldenlandia L. (Rubiaceae) and related genera in Australia. Austrobaileya 3(4): 683-722.
• [921] Matthew, K.M., 1981-1988. The flora of the Tamilnadu Carnatic. 4 volumes. The Rapinat Herbarium, St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli, India.
• [1035] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
• [1094] Otsuka, H., Yoshimura, K., Yamasaki, K. & Cantoria, M.C., 1991. Isolation of 10-O-acyl iridoid glucosides from a Philippine medicinal plant, Oldenlandia corymbosa L. (Rubiaceae). Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin 39(8): 2049-2052.
• [1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• [1373] Sivarajan, V.V. & Biju, S.D., 1990. Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on the Hedyotis corymbosa-diffusa complex (Rubiaceae) in India. Taxon 39(4): 665-674.
• [1423] Sutarjadi, Santosa, M.H., Bendryman & Dyatmiko, W., 1991. Immunomodulatory activity of Piper betle, Zingiber aromatica, Andrographis paniculata, Allium sativum, and Oldenlandia corymbosa grown in Indonesia. Planta Medica 57, Supplement Issue 2: A136.

• Oldenlandia (Medicinal plants)

• N.O. Aguilar & R.H.M.J. Lemmens