Changes

Chlorogenic and benzoic acids, as well as a metabolite of the latter (the glycoside 1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-β-carboline-3β-carboxylic acid), have been isolated from ''Merremia aegyptia''.

Annual herb up to 6 m tall; stems slender, twining, long-hirsute. Leaves alternate, palmately compound with 5 leaflets; stipules absent; petiole 2.5–12 cm long; leaflets sessile, elliptical(-oblong), 2.5–12 cm × 1–4 cm, base acute, apex acuminate, margin entire, on both surfaces appressed hairy. Inflorescence a cyme, few to several-flowered; peduncle up to 22 cm long. Flowers bisexual, regular, 5-merous; pedicel up to 2.5 cm long; sepals unequal, the outer 3 ovate-lanceolate, 14–25 mm long, with coarse, stiff hairs, the inner 2 shorter, ovate, glabrous; corolla funnel-shaped, up to 3.5 cm long, white, glabrous; stamens inserted at 5 mm of the base of corolla tube, filaments unequal; ovary superior, 4-celled, style slender, c. 7 mm long, stigmas 2, round. Fruit a globose capsule 1.2–1.5 cm in diameter, apiculate, glabrous, pale brown, enclosed by persistent calyx, dehiscent by 4 valves, up to 4-seeded. Seeds trigonous, c. 4 mm long, brown, glabrous.