Botany
Bagasua is a wide-spreading, creeping or twining,
smooth vine. Leaves are alternate, orbicular to elliptic, thick, shining,
6 to 14 centimeters long, with a notched or lobed tip and broad base. Flowers
are campanulate, light purple, borne on pedicels in the axils of leaves,
usually as long as the stalks. Stalk is erect and bears one to six flowers,
which often opens one at a time. Sepals are green, elliptic, and 8 millimeters
long. Corolla is purple, bell-shaped, and 5 centimeters long, with the limb 5 to 6 centimeters in diameter and slightly lobed. Capsules are smooth, ovoid, about 1 centimeter long. Seeds are covered
with hairs.
Distribution
- Found on all sandy seashores throughout
the Philippines and also along the margins of some lakes.
- Most useful as a sand blinder.
- A pantropic strand plant.
Constituents
- Plant contains a resin and an alkaloid.
- Leaves do not contain alkaloid, saponins, or glucoside.
- Yields mucilage, volatile oil, complex resin, fat, phytosterol, bitter substances, and red coloring matter.
- Phytochemical study suggest the presence of steroids, terpenoids, alkaloids
and flavonoids.
Properties
- Tubers considered diuretic.
- Seeds are stomachic.
Parts utilized
Leaves
Uses
Folkloric
- Leaves used as an escharotic to extirpate
the fungoid growth of ulcers.
- Leaves are cooked and used as a antirheumatic topical.
- Boiled tubers, as diuretic, used for disease of the bladder.
- Seeds used for stomach pains and cramps.
- In India, leaves are boiled
and applied externally as an anodyne for colic; as decoction for rheumatism.
- Paste of leaves applied to carbuncles.
- In Brazil, used for inflammation and gastrointestinal disorders as an analgesic.
- In Australia, traditionally
used for headache treatments.
Studies
• Antinociceptive / Phytochemicals:
Study of the methanolic extract of Ipomoea pes-caprae exhibited considerable
antinociceptive activity against classical models of pain in mice and
supports the traditional use of the plant for painful conditions. Phytochemicals yielded the presence of steroids, terpenoids, alkaloids and flavonoids.
• Antioxidant: Ipomoea
pes-caprae was one of the selected mangrove plants in India studied
for polyphenol antioxidants.
• Anti-platelet aggregation:
In a study looking for potent inhibition of ADP-induced human platelet
5-HT release in vitro.
• Anti-Inflammatory: Topical application of an extract from the leaves of Ipomoea pes-caprae inhibited carrageenan-induced paw edema. In vitro prostaglandin formation was inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner. Study showed significant anti-inflammatory activity probably through reduction of prostaglandin and leukotrine formation.
• Immunostimulatory: In vivo study evaluated the methanol extracts of three Brazilian medicinal plants on human mononuclear cells. All three induced T-lymphocyte proliferation. I. pes-caprae showed immunostimulatory activity three times higher than C. brasiliense.
• Antioxidant / Radical Scavenging Effect: Study evaluating the in vitro antioxidan activity of Ipomoea pes-caprae showed a free radical scavenging effects that increased with concentration. Maximum antioxidant activity was noted at 1000 mg mL.
Availability
Cultivated.
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