Sphaeranthus africanus (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Sphaeranthus africanus L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. ed. 2: 1314 (1762).

Family: Compositae

Synonyms

• Sphaeranthus cochinchinensis Lour. (1790).

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: sembung gantung (Sundanese), kamandhin (Madurese)
• Malaysia: gelang liat lembu
• Philippines: botobotonisan, sambong-gala (Tagalog), talababako (Bisaya)
• Thailand: kaarabuun (southwestern), phak khraat hua waen (peninsular), ra-ngap (central)
• Vietnam: bọ xít, chưn vịt.

Distribution

S. africanus is distributed from eastern and southern Africa, Madagascar, India and Sri Lanka to tropical Asia and Australia.

Uses

In Malaysia, pounded leaves of S. africanus , with seeds of black cumin (Nigella sativa L.), are rubbed upon the gums to relieve toothache. The plant is chewed in the Philippines as a stomachic.

Observations

• A slender, glabrous or pubescent herb, 40-50(-110) cm tall.
• Leaves obovate to elliptical, 4.5-9 cm × 2-3.2 cm, margins finely toothed or subentire, wings entire or with a few mucronate teeth.
• Glomerule globose, 7-12 mm across, receptacle orbicular to elliptical, involucral bracts about 10, lanceolate, acuminate, concave, 3-4 mm long, glandular-puberulous to glabrous; heads large and distinct, on short secondary receptacles, bracts 6-15, narrowly to broadly spathulate, 1.5-3 mm long, rounded or acuminate, sometimes glandular.
• Marginal flowers 15-20(-30), corolla 1-2.5 mm long, broadly cylindrical or obovoid, or inflated, hardened and persistent in the lower half and suddenly constricted into a terminal slender tube, white or purple, green at the base, disk flowers 1-3, funnel-shaped with a constriction near the middle, 2-3 mm long, lobes triangular, glandular or not, base hardened and persistent, white or purple, green at the base.
• Achenes similar for both types of flowers, oblong, glandular-punctate.

S. africanus commonly occurs in marshy locations along the coast, in damp waste places, in and around towns, in fallowed rice fields, from sea-level up to 700 m altitude. Flowering time in Java is from March till October, in Sri Lanka from November till May.

Main genus page

• Sphaeranthus

Selected sources

• [62] Areekul, S., Sinchaisri, P. & Tigvatananon, S., 1987. Effect of Thai plant extracts on the oriental fruit fly I. Toxicity test. Kasetsart Journal of Natural Sciences (Thailand) 21(4): 395—407.
• [215] 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.
• [407] Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• [604] 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.
• [739] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
• [951] Soerjani, M., Kostermans, A.J.G.H. & Tjitrosoepomo, G. (Editors), 1987. Weeds of rice in Indonesia. Balai Pustaka, Jakarta, Indonesia. 716 pp.

Authors

• Wongsatit Chuakul, Noppamas Soonthornchareonnon, Orawan Ruangsomboon