Oldenlandia brachypoda (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Oldenlandia brachypoda DC.

Protologue: Prodr. 4: 424 (1830).

Synonyms

• Hedyotis brachypoda (DC.) Sivar. & Biju (1990),
• Hedyotis diffusa auct. non Willd.,
• Oldenlandia diffusa auct. non (Willd.) Roxb.

Vernacular names

• Malaysia: bunga chakar ayam, rumput angga (Peninsular)
• Philippines: ulasiman-kalat (Tagalog), daniri (Bisaya)
• Thailand: hom chaeo naa (Khon Kaen).

Distribution

From Sri Lanka, India, southern China and Japan to Malesia; also in tropical America.

Uses

In Malaysia, the plant is used for poulticing, apparently against lumbago. In India, a decoction of the whole plant is used to treat biliousness, fever and gonorrhoea.

Observations

• A prostrate annual herb up to 45 cm long, usually branched from the base, branches terete.
• Leaves linear-lanceolate, up to 4 cm long.
• Flowers axillary, solitary, sometimes 2-3 together, corolla white to purplish.
• Fruit subglobose.
• Seeds reticulate.

O. brachypoda usually occurs in humid or swampy locations such as rice fields and along streams, up to 1100(-1500) m altitude. It has been very often confused with O. diffusa (Willd.) Roxb., which is also a common weed, and which possibly has comparable uses and properties.

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.
• [627] Huang, J.-T., 1981. Neue Iridoide aus Oldenlandia diffusa Roxb. [New iridoids from Oldenlandia diffusa Roxb.]. Archiv der Pharmazie 314(10): 831-836.
• [921] Matthew, K.M., 1981-1988. The flora of the Tamilnadu Carnatic. 4 volumes. The Rapinat Herbarium, St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli, India.
• [1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• [1373] Sivarajan, V.V. & Biju, S.D., 1990. Taxonomic and nomenclatural notes on the Hedyotis corymbosa-diffusa complex (Rubiaceae) in India. Taxon 39(4): 665-674.
• [1587] Wong, B.Y.Y., Lau, B.H.S., Tadi, P.P. & Teel, R.W., 1992. Chinese medicinal herbs modulate mutagenesis, DNA binding and metabolism of aflatoxin B1. Mutation Research 279(3): 209-216.
• [1588] Wong, B.Y.Y., Lau, B.H.S., Yamasaki, T. & Teel, R.W., 1993. Modulation of cytochrome P-450IA1-mediated mutagenicity DNA binding and metabolism of benzo-a-pyrene by Chinese medicinal herbs. Cancer Letters 68(1): 75-82.
• [1637] Yoshida, Y., Wang, M.Q., Liu, J.N., Shan, B.E. & Yamashita, U., 1997. Immunomodulating activity of Chinese medicinal herbs and Oldenlandia diffusa in particular. International Journal of Immunopharmacology 19(7): 359-370.

Main genus page

• Oldenlandia (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• N.O. Aguilar & R.H.M.J. Lemmens