Pergularia tomentosa (PROTA)

Plant Resources of Tropical Africa Introduction

List of species

General importance
Geographic coverage Africa
Geographic coverage World
Fruit
Dye / tannin
Medicinal
Food security

Pergularia tomentosa L.

distribution in Africa (wild)

Protologue: Mant. pl. 1: 53 (1767).

Family: Asclepiadaceae (APG: Apocynaceae)

Chromosome number: 2n = 22

• Pergularia (En).
• Pergulaire (Fr).

Pergularia tomentosa is widely distributed across the Sahara desert, and eastward across the Horn of Africa through Sinai (Egypt), southern Israel, Jordan and the Arabian Peninsula to the deserts of southern and eastern Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In the central Sahara a decoction of the pulped root with goat meat is taken to treat bronchitis and tuberculosis. A piece of fresh root is applied rectally to treat haemorrhoids. The patient is left to squirm until blood is seen. In Côte d’Ivoire the crushed plant, sometimes with chillies, is drunk or given as enema against dysentery and as an anthelmintic. Leaf-sap, used as eye drops, is considered an excellent remedy for headache, while in Niger a paste of powdered root bark is administered into the nose for this purpose. In Niger and northern Nigeria guinea worm infection is treated by applying a few drops of latex into incisions in the blister. In Niger the root enters into a medicine against general fatigue. In Niger the plant is an ingredient of Strophanthus arrow poison and is also attributed with magico-medicinal properties. In North Africa the plant is used to induce abortion.

In northern Nigeria, the Hoggar mountains (southern Algeria) and Egypt the pulped plant or a decoction of it, is rubbed onto hides. The paste is left on overnight after which the hair can be removed from the skin. The latex is used similarly. Skins may also be dipped in a decoction of the plant or in water with wood ash, in which the plant has been left to ferment for a few days, in order to improve the absorption of tannins. In Morocco and other countries the latex is used as a cosmetic depilatory. In eastern Sudan Fula herdsmen rub the latex onto the udder of cows to increase milk production. In semi-desert areas a little milk, in which stems have been soaked, is added to milk to curdle it for cheese-making.

Although many sources indicate that the plant is poisonous, it is also reported to be given to goats as forage. The stems are reported to be occasionally used as famine food, similar to plant parts of Pergularia daemia (Forsk.) Chiov., but this use could not be further confirmed.

Products of the Pergularia tomentosa are traded in markets in northern Africa, often as depilatory.

The latex of Pergularia tomentosa is corrosive and may severely harm the skin. All plant parts are rich sources of cardenolide glycosides, with aglycones such as uzarienin, coroglaucigenin and pergularin, and glucose and digitoxose as sugars. The roots contain the glycosides ghalakinoside, calactin and derivatives; the leaves and latex contain ghalakinoside, pergularin, 16 α-acetoxycalotropin, calactin and coroglaucigenin. Apart from cardenolides the plant also contains alkaloids, polyphenols, terpenoids, flavonoids, coumarins, anthraquinones and tannins.

Several of the cardenolides are characterized by the double link between the sugar moiety and the aglycone which gives them a dioxanoid structure. The glycosides are very cardiotoxic if administered intravenously. They are poorly absorbed when ingested by mouth, which may explain the contradictory information about the use of the plant as fodder. Some of the cardenolides from the root and aerial parts have shown cytotoxic activity against several human cancer cell lines in vitro. In a test with mice, aqueous and ethanol extracts proved to be very toxic. They first caused paralysis of the limbs, followed by asphyxiation. At higher doses the extracts caused increased activity in isolated muscle tissue, probably by direct stimulation, but in the isolated toad heart they caused reduced muscle contraction. A pergularin glycoside had a similar effect on muscle tissue, but increased cardiac contraction.

Aqueous and several organic solvent extracts of leaves, stems and roots showed antifungal activity against a number of pathogenic fungi, as well as organ protecting activity in the toad Bufo regularis infected with Aspergillus niger. Bactericidal and molluscicidal effects have also been reported. Methanolic extracts of the aerial parts, as well as the isolated coroglaucigenin, 16 α-acetoxycalotropin and calactin, showed deterrent feeding activity of the armyworm Spodoptera littoralis.

All plant parts contained 52–59% carbohydrates and 16–22.5% crude fibre. Lipids (c. 6%), ash (16–17%) and crude protein (c. 6%) contents were highest in the leaves.

Scrambling small shrub from a woody rootstock, with young stems twisting around older ones, containing white latex; stems and inflorescences densely short-hairy with stiff hairs. Leaves opposite, simple and entire; stipules absent; petiole 0.5–1.5(–3) cm long; blade slightly fleshy, broadly ovate to almost orbicular, 1–3(–4.5) cm × 1–3(–4.5) cm, base deeply cordate, apex obtuse to acute, densely short-hairy on both surfaces, silvery grey. Inflorescence an extra-axillary raceme, when young umbelliform; peduncle 1–3 cm long. Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous, sweet-scented; pedicel 1.5–2 cm long, short-hairy; sepals ovate to oblong, 2–3.5 mm long, apex acute, densely short-hairy; corolla yellowish green or brownish purple, tube cylindrical, 2–4 mm long, lobes ovate to elliptical, 4–(5–6(–8) mm × (2–)3–3.5(–4) mm, apex almost acute or acute, glabrous to sparsely short-hairy outside, glabrous inside apart from the long-hairy base and margins; outer corona membranous with ciliate lobes, inner corona lobes slender to stout, 3.5–5(–6) mm long, the apical projection reaching slightly beyond the top of the staminal column, often further, basal tails slightly spreading; ovary superior, 2-celled. Fruit usually a pair of follicles, reflexed along the pedicel, lanceolate, 4–5.5 cm × 1–1.5(–2) cm, curved into a short or long attenuate beak, smooth or covered with soft short-hairy processes. Seeds ovoid, flattened, 7–9 mm × c. 6 mm, margins pale, densely short-hairy, with a tuft of hairs at one end, c. 3 cm long.

Pergularia belongs to subtribe Asclepiadinae, together with Asclepias, Calotropis and Gomphocarpus. It comprises 2 polymorphic species; the other species, Pergularia daemia, which is smaller in habit, occurs in desert and dry areas in southern Africa northward to Somalia, and through the Arabian peninsula to South Asia. Forms intermediate between the 2 species occur on Socotra (Yemen) and have recently been classified in Pergularia tomentosa.

In the Sahara Pergularia tomentosa flowers throughout the year, towards the northern and eastern edges it flowers in spring.

Pergularia tomentosa thrives in deserts where rainfall often does not exceed 100 mm per year, in wadi beds and on plateau areas, on clayey to sandy, gravelly and stony soils. It occurs from sea-level up to 1000 m altitude. Along the Red Sea, it occurs together with Aerva lanata (L.) Juss. ex Schult., Capparis decidua (Forssk.) Edgew. and Salsola spinescens Moq. in plant communities dominating in the sand plains.

Pergularia tomentosa is propagated by seed. The average 1000 seed weight is 16 g.

There are no reports that Pergularia tomentosa is grown as a cultivated ornamental as is Pergularia daemia.

Although Pergularia tomentosa occurs in a vulnerable habitat, it is widespread and present in several protected areas and is not considered in danger of genetic erosion.

Pergularia tomentosa may retain a role as depilatory in cosmetics and in tanning hides. It is likely to retain a place in traditional medicine, but there are no indications that it will become an important source of pharmaceutical materials.

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• Mahalel, U.A., 2012. Antibacterial sensitivity for some chemically diverse steroidal glycosides in vitro. Journal of Agriculture and Social Sciences 8(1): 24–28.
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• Piacente, S., Masullo, M., De Nève, N., Dewelle, J., Hamed, A. Kiss, R. & Mijatovic, T., 2009. Cardenolides from Pergularia tomentosa display cytotoxic activity resulting from their potent inhibition of Na+/K+-ATPase. Journal of Natural Products 72: 1087–1091.

• L.P.A. Oyen, PROTA Network Office Europe, Wageningen University, P.O. Box 341, 6700 AH Wageningen, Netherlands

Oyen, L.P.A., 2013. Pergularia tomentosa L. In: Schmelzer, G.H. & Gurib-Fakim, A. (Editors). Prota 11(2): Medicinal plants/Plantes médicinales 2. PROTA, Wageningen, Netherlands. Accessed 5 April 2025.

• See this page on the Prota4U database.