Elephantopus spicatus (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Elephantopus spicatus Juss. ex Aublet

Protologue: Hist. pl. Guiane 2: 808 (1775).

Synonyms

• Pseudelephantopus spicatus (Juss. ex Aublet) Rohr (1792).

Vernacular names

• False elephant's foot (En)
• Philippines: dilang-aso (Tagalog), maratabako (Iloko), kalkalapikap (Bontok)
• Vietnam: chân voi gié.

Distribution

Native to tropical America; introduced in tropical Africa and Asia. In South-East Asia, reported very locally for Java and widespread for the Philippines; also in Vietnam, southern China and Taiwan.

Uses

In the Philippines, the leaves are used topically to treat eczema, and as a vulnerary.

Observations

• An erect herb up to 120 cm tall, usually branched and with a strong taproot, stems slightly hairy to glabrous.
• Leaves in a radical rosette and cauline, oblong-obovate to oblong-lanceolate, lower ones 5-25 cm × 1-7 cm, upper ones smaller.
• Heads clustered in the axil of small cauline leaves, combined into a long, lax terminal spike, involucral bracts 2-seriate, the outer ones shorter than inner ones.
• Flowers with corolla about 7 mm long, white.
• Fruit 6-7 mm long with pappus bristles unequal, the 2 largest sigmoid near the apex.

E. spicatus is common in waste places in the Philippines.

Selected sources

• 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.
• Li, H. L., 1978. Compositae. 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. 768-965.
• Lin, C.C., Tsai, C.C. & Yen, M.H., 1995. The evaluation of hepatoprotective effects of Taiwan folk medicine "Teng Khia U". Journal of Ethnopharmacology 45(2): 113-123.
• Lin, C.C., Yen, M.H. & Chiu, H.F., 1991. The pharmacological and pathological studies on Taiwan folk medicine VI. The effects of Elephantopus scaber ssp. oblanceolata, Elephantopus mollis and Pseudoelephantopus spicatus. American Journal of Chinese medicine 19(1): 41-50.
• Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.

Main genus page

• Elephantopus (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Ng Lean Teik