Phyllanthus simplex (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Phyllanthus simplex Retz.

Protologue: Observ. bot. 5: 29 (1788).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: sahakepo (Minahassa, Sulawesi)
• Philippines: kaya-an, kayut-bulang (Bagobo)
• Laos: ket 'hoy, 'khi²doy²
• Thailand: khaang amphai (northern), luuk tai bai (central), phaeng kham hoi (eastern)
• Vietnam: vẩy ốc.

Distribution

P. simplex is found from India and Sri Lanka to Indo-China, southern China, Thailand, and throughout the Malesian region.

Uses

In the Philippines, leaf juice is used as an eyewash for inflamed eyes. In India, P. simplex is credited with antiseptic properties. Leaves are crushed and mixed with buttermilk to make a lotion against itching, and root preparations are externally applied to mammary abscesses.

Observations

• A monoecious, annual or perennial, erect to prostrate, glabrous herb up to 50 cm tall with unspecialized branching, branchlets compressed, narrowly wing-angled; leaves distichous on the main stem, narrowly to broadly oblong-lanceolate, 5-32 mm × 2-9 mm, obtuse to rounded at base, apex obtuse, margin often purplish, subsessile, stipules broadly ovate.
• Male flowers in axillary glomerules of 2-4, with (5-)6 calyx lobes, disk segments 6, stamens 3, free, anthers dehiscing horizontally; female flowers solitary in leaf axils, long-pedicellate, with 6 calyx lobes, disk shallowly cupular, entire to subentire, styles free, bifid down to the base.
• Fruit a depressed globose capsule, 2.5-3.5 mm in diameter, papillate-verruculose.
• Seeds verruculose.

P. simplex is a weed of roadsides, grassy places, arable land and upland rice fields, up to 750 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [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.
• [287] 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.
• [580] 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.
• [1126] 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.
• [1128] 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.
• [1135] Philcox, D., 1997. Euphorbiaceae. In: Dassanayake, M.D. & Clayton, W.D. (Editors): A revised handbook to the flora of Ceylon. Vol. 11. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. pp. 80-283.
• [1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• [1188] Raghava Reddy, J. & Purnachandra Reddi, A., 1980. Powdery mildews on plants of Capparidaceae and Euphorbiaceae. Acta Botanica Indica 8: 87-90.
• [1380] Smitinand, T., 1980. Thai plant names. Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand. 379 pp.
• [1386] Soerjani, M., Kostermans, A.J.G.H. & Tjitrosoepomo, G., (Editors) 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. Balai Pustaka, Jakarta, Indonesia. 716 pp.
• [1525] Vidal, J., 1962. Noms vernaculaires de plantes en usage au Laos [Vernacular names of plants used in Laos]. Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, Paris, France. 197 pp.
• [1556] Webster, G.L., 1986. A revision of Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae) in Eastern Melanesia. Pacific Science 40: 88-105.

Main genus page

• Phyllanthus (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• F.L. van Holthoon