Phytolacca octandra (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Phytolacca octandra L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. ed. 2, 1: 631 (1762).

Family: Phytolaccaceae

Vernacular names

• Inkweed, dyeberry (En).

Distribution

Native of tropical America, extending form Mexico to Columbia. Elsewhere locally naturalized or cultivated, e.g. in Indonesia (Sumatra and western Java).

Uses

Young sprouts and leaves can be used as a vegetable. The roots have fungistatic and medicinal properties.

Observations

• A perennial branched herb up to 60(-200) cm tall, with angular stem.
• Leaves oblong-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, up to 15(-22) cm × 6(-7.5) cm; petiole 1-3 cm long.
• Flowers in spiciform racemes shorter to slightly longer than leaves, bisexual, stamens 8-15(-20), in 1 whorl, carpels 7-9(-10), united in fruit.
• Fruit a subglobose berry, about 1 cm in diameter, with 8 longitudinal furrows, black.

In Malesia, P. octandra occurs at about 1700 m altitude, near road and watersides, waste places.

Selected sources

• Backer, C.A., 1951. Phytolaccaceae. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (General editor): Flora Malesiana. Series 1, Vol. 4. Noordhoff-Kolff, Djakarta, Indonesia. pp. 228-232.
• Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963–1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Wolters-Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol.1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol.2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
• Bodger, M.P., McGiven, A.R. & Fitzgerald, P.H., 1979. Mitogenic proteins of pokeweed - part 1: purification, characterization and mitogenic activity of 2 proteins from pokeweed (Phytolacca octandra). Immunology 37(4): 785-792.
• Bodger, M.P., McGiven, A.R. & Fitzgerald, P.H., 1979. Mitogenic proteins of pokeweed - part 2: the differentiation of human peripheral blood bone marrow derived lymphocytes stimulated with purified pokeweed mitogens PO-2 and PO-3 from pokeweed (Phytolacca octandra). Immunology 37(4): 793-800.
• Huxley, A., Griffiths, M. & Levy, M. (Editors), 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening. 4 volumes. Macmillan Press, London, United Kingdom.
• Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of agricultural and horticultural plants in cultivation (without ornamentals)]. Schultze-Motel, J. et al., editors 2nd edition,
• Moreno, M. & Rodriguez, V.M., 1981. Yiamoloside B, a fungistatic saponin of Phytolacca octandra. Phytochemistry 20(6): 1446-1447.
• Nowicke, J.W., 1969. Palynotaxonomic study of the Phytolaccaceae. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 55(3): 294-364.
• Siemonsma, J.S. & Kasem Piluek (Editors), 1993. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 8. Vegetables. Pudoc Scientific Publishers, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 412 pp.
• van Steenis, C.G.G.J. et al. (Editors), 1950– . Flora Malesiana. Series 1. Vol. 1, 4–10. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, the Netherlands.

Main genus page

• Phytolacca (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Razali Yusuf