Strychnos ignatii (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

11, flowering twig; 2, flower; 3, twig with fruits; 4, lenticular-shaped seed; 5, irregularly shaped seeds (Iskak Syamsudin)

Strychnos ignatii Bergius

Protologue: Mater. med. 1: 146 (1778).

Synonyms

• Strychnos tieute Lesch. (1810),
• Strychnos ovalifolia Wallich ex G. Don (1837),
• Strychnos beccarii Gilg (1897).

Vernacular names

• Saint Ignatius bean (En).
• Fèves de Saint-Ignace (Fr).
• Pepita de San Ignacio (Sp)
• Indonesia: pokru (Sundanese), cetek (Javanese), bina (Kalimantan)
• Malaysia: akar ipoh, belai hitam, ipoh akar besar (Peninsular)
• Philippines: katbalonga (Tagalog), igasud (Bisaya), pepita-sa-katbalogan (Tagalog, Bisaya, Pampango/Kapampangan)
• Thailand: phayaa mue lek (Krabi)
• Vietnam: loàng nàn.

Distribution

Indo-China, Hainan, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Java, Borneo and the south-eastern Philippines (Biliran, Samar, Leyte and Mindanao).

Uses

The seeds and bark have been prescribed as a stomachic, febrifuge, anticholeric and tonic in the Philippines. In Thailand, the seeds, roots and wood are used as a stomachic, febrifuge and to treat malaria. Leaves are used to treat diabetes. In India, the seeds have been used to obstinate vomiting, to treat cholera, asthma, dropsy and rheumatism, and as a tonic and vermifuge. The seeds are commercially traded as a source of strychnine. The bark and the seeds are used to treat stomach-ache in Vietnam. The roots are used in Indonesia and Malaysia as arrow poison, and sometimes as a fish poison.

Observations

• A liana up to 35 m long, with stem up to 5 cm in diameter, bark densely and finely lenticellate, brown or grey, tendrils simple.
• Leaves ovate or elliptical to lanceolate, 4-18(-22) cm × 2-9(-12) cm, petiole 5-10 mm long.
• Inflorescence axillary, 10-20-flowered.
• Corolla 7-17 mm long, tube about 3 times longer than lobes, with some long woolly hairs inside in the lower half.
• Fruit globose, 4-12 cm in diameter, about 10-seeded.
• Seeds lenticular to ellipsoid or orbicular, 20-35 mm × 16-20 mm × 8-9 mm, silky to felty, or irregularly shaped like castor beans, about 20 mm × 10 mm × 10 mm and rough but glabrous.

S. ignatii is usually found in dense forest, often in dipterocarp forest on sandy soil or in mixed rain forest, sometimes on river banks, up to 1500 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [160] Bisset, N.G., 1974. The Asian species of Strychnos. Part III. The ethnobotany. Lloydia 37(1): 62-107.
• [163] Bisset, N.G. & Phillipson, J.D., 1976. The Asian species of Strychnos. Part IV. The alkaloids. Lloydia 39(5): 263-325.
• [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.
• [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.
• [580] 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.
• [769] Kopp, B., Bauer, W.P. & Bernkop-Schnürch, A., 1992. Analysis of some Malaysian dart poisons. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 36(1): 57-62.
• [839] Leenhouts, P.W., 1962. Loganiaceae. In: van Steenis, C.G.G.J. (General editor): Flora Malesiana. Series 1, Vol. 6. Wolters-Noordhoff Publishing, Groningen, the Netherlands. pp. 293-387.
• [911] Massiot, G. et al., 1983. Occurrence of longicaudatine, a new type of bis-indole base and bisnor-C alkaloid H in Strychnos spp. Journal of Organic Chemistry 48(11): 1869-1872.
• [1126] Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 pp.
• [1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• [1460] Tirel-Roudet, C., 1972. Loganiaceae. In: Vidal, J.E. & Galibert, Y. (Editors): Flore du Cambodge, du Laos et du Viêtnam [Flora of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. Vol. 13. Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France. pp. 3-89.
• [1475] Tran Cong Khanh, 1987. Beitrag zur Kenntnis der Sippenstruktur des Genus Strychnos L. (Loganiaceae) in der Flora Vietnams. Teil 2: Zur Gliederung der Gattung Strychnos in Vietnam [Contribution to the knowledge on affinity structure of the genus Strychnos L. (Loganiaceae) in the flora of Vietnam. Part 2: On the division of the genus Strychnos in Vietnam]. Feddes Repertorium 98(1-2): 75-104.

Main genus page

• Strychnos (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Purwaningsih