Phyllanthus urinaria (PROSEA)

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Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction
List of species


Phyllanthus urinaria L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 2: 982 (1753).

Synonyms

  • Phyllanthus lepidocarpus Siebold & Zucc. (1843),
  • Phyllanthus leprocarpus Wight (1852),
  • Phyllanthus verrucosus Elmer (1915).

Vernacular names

  • Leaf flower (Am).
  • Kikilé, petit tamarin rouge, urinaire de Malabar (Fr)
  • Indonesia: memeniran (Sundanese), meniran (Javanese), gosau ma dungi roriha (Ternate)
  • Malaysia: amin buah, dukong anak, keman jolok (Peninsular)
  • Philippines: laiolaioan (Bikol), ibaiba-an (Tagalog), takumtakum (Bisaya)
  • Cambodia: prak phlè
  • Laos: khao ham, khao ham 'sano khok
  • Thailand: ma khaam pom din (northern), maak khai lang (north-eastern), yaa tai bai (central, peninsular)
  • Vietnam: chó dẻ răng cưa, diệp hạ châu.

Distribution

P. urinaria is native to the Asian tropics, but was introduced into America and Africa and is nowadays an almost pantropical weed; throughout the Malesian region.

Uses

P. urinaria has the same uses as P. amarus in South-East Asia, but P. amarus is generally preferred. In Malaysia, the juice is also used to clean a child's tongue and to stimulate a child's appetite. In Papua New Guinea, a decoction is used as a febrifuge. In Brunei, a leaf poultice is applied, with coconut milk, to smallpox. In Cambodia, it is used against malaria. In the Pacific, P. urinaria is known as an emmenagogue and abortifacient. In Guam, a decoction is employed to treat dysentery and in the Solomon islands the leaves are used to relieve pain in the chest. In India, P. urinaria is considered a very good diuretic.

Observations

  • A monoecious, generally annual, usually erect herb up to 80 cm tall with phyllanthoid branching, cataphylls scarious, their stipules ovate-lanceolate and conspicuously auriculate; deciduous branchlets (3-)5-13 cm long with 10-42 leaves.
  • Leaves oblong or elliptical-oblong to elliptical-obovate, 4-20(-25) mm × (1-)3-6(-9) mm, obtuse to rounded and sometimes slightly unequal at base, apex rounded to obtuse and often apiculate, subsessile, stipules unequal, triangular-lanceolate; proximal 5-20 nodes of deciduous branchlets with solitary female flowers, succeeding nodes bearing monochasia of 5-7 male flowers.
  • Male flowers with 6 calyx lobes, disk segments 6, stamens 3, filaments connate, anthers free, dehiscing vertically; female flowers subsessile, calyx lobes 6, disk cup-shaped, margin sometimes crenulate, styles fused at base into a triangular plate.
  • Fruit a globular capsule, about 2 mm in diameter, usually rugose.
  • Seeds with sharp transverse ridges on the back and sides.

P. urinaria is highly variable and two subspecies have been recognized. The rare subspecies nudicarpus Rossignol & Haicour has creeping branches that root on the nodes and smooth-skinned capsules; within Malesia it is found in the Philippines. P. urinaria is a common weed of waste places, clearings, gardens, along paths, but is also found in evergreen forest and bamboo forest. It grows on well-drained, fertile, sandy soils, sometimes on limestone, often in humid places or even in marshy ground, up to 1500 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.
  • [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.
  • [536] Haicour, R., 1983. La variabilité de la compatibilité génétique entre divers taxons de Phyllanthus urinaria L. (Euphorbiaceae): Mise en évidence et perspectives ouvertes par son analyse [Variation in genetic compatibility between various taxa of Phyllanthus urinaria L. (Euphorbiaceae): clarification and open perspectives by its analysis]. Bulletin de la Société Botanique de France, 130, Lettres botaniques: 207-226.
  • [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.
  • [597] Holdsworth, D.K., 1977. Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. Technical Paper No 175. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 123 pp.
  • [965] Mohiddin, M.Y., Wong Chin & Holdsworth, D.K., 1992. Traditional medicinal plants of Brunei Darussalam. Part III. Sengkurong. International Journal of Pharmacognosy 30(2): 105-108.
  • [1035] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 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.
  • [1204] Rao, Y.S., Israel, P. & Biswas, H., 1970. Weed and rotation crop plants as hosts for the rice root-knot nematode, Meloidogyne graminicola (Golden and Birchfield). Oryza 7(2): 137-142.
  • [1255] Rossignol, L., Rossignol, M. & Haicour, R., 1987. A systematic revision of Phyllanthus subsection Urinaria, Euphorbiaceae. American Journal of Botany 74(12): 1853-1862.
  • [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.
  • [1476] Tran Dinh Ly, 1993. 1900 Loai cay co ich o Viet nam [1900 useful plant species in Vietnam]. Hanoi, Vietnam. 544 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.
  • [1555] Webster, G.L., 1956-1958. A monographic study of the West Indian species of Phyllanthus. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 37: 91-122, 217-268, 340-359; 38: 51-80, 170-198, 295-373; 39: 49-100, 111-212.
  • [1560] Wehtje, G.R., Gilliam, C.H. & Reeder, J.A., 1992. Germination and growth of leafflower (Phyllanthus urinaria) as affected by cultural conditions and herbicides. Weed Technology 6: 139-143.

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Authors

  • F.L. van Holthoon
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