Plantago asiatica (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Plantago asiatica L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 1: 113 (1753).

• Plantago major L. var. asiatica (L.) Decne.

• Cambodia: slap chravea
• Vietnam: mã dề, xa tiền.

India, Indo-China, China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan and Siberia.

In Indo-China, the seeds are used as diuretic, whereas the whole plant is used to treat coughs and bronchitis. The leaves are applied as a poultice to treat boils and furuncles. The leaves are sometimes consumed as a vegetable.

• A small perennial herb up to 20 cm tall.
• Leaves in a rosette, broadly ovate to ovate or elliptical-ovate, 5-15 cm × 3-8 cm, entire or obscurely dentate, glabrous or nearly so.
• Spike 2-10 cm long, variably densely flowered, bracts ovate, about 1.5 mm long.
• Fruit 3-4 mm long, 4-6(-12)-seeded.
• Seeds ellipsoidal and plano-convex, (1-)1.5-2 mm long, blackish-brown.

P. asiatica is closely related to P. major and often considered to be conspecific. It may differ in its thinner and slightly broader leaves and on average fewer and larger seeds; however, there is much overlap with the variable P. major It is common in grasslands, along roads and in waste places, especially on poorly drained soils.

• [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.
• [826] Le Van Truyen et al., 1983. Contribution to the study on galenical dosage forms of Plantago major var. asiatica Descaine. Tap chi Duoc hoc 6: 15-18. (in Vietnamese)
• [851] Li, H.-L., 1978. Plantaginaceae. In: Li, H.-L., Liu, T.-S., Huang, T.-C., Koyama, T. & DeVol, C.E. (Editors): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 4. Epoch Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. pp. 701-703.
• [1035] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
• [1042] Nishibe, S., Tamayama, Y., Sasahara, M. & Andary, C., 1995. A phenylethanoid glycoside from Plantago asiatica. Phytochemistry 38(3): 741-743.
• [1208] Ravn, H., Nishibe, S., Sasahara, M. & Xuebo, L., 1990. Phenolic compounds from Plantago asiatica. Phytochemistry 29(11): 3627-3631.
• [1439] Taikun, Z., Tanaka, T., Sakai, E., Yoshida, M. & Matsuo, K., 1990. Pharmacognostical studies of Plantaginis Herba 6. Anatomy of Plantago major in Hokkaido, Japan. Shoyakugaku Zasshi 44(3): 145-150. (in Japanese)
• [1464] Tomoda, M., Takada, K., Shimizu, N., Gonda, R. & Ohara, N., 1991. Reticuloendothelial system-potentiating and alkaline phosphatase-inducing activities of Plantago-mucilage A, the main mucilage from the seed of Plantago asiatica, and its five modification products. Chemical and Pharmaceutical Bulletin 39(8): 2068-2071.

• Plantago (Medicinal plants)

• Lilis Pangemanan