| Botany
Bataw is a smooth, twining, climbing or trailing
vine, 4 to 6 meters long, often with smooth, usually purplish stems. Leaves are
long stalked, 3-foliate with inequilateral leaflets. Leaflets are entire, ovatre, and 7 to 15 centimeters long.
Flowers are few to many, white to pink-purple in color, about 2 centimeters long, on erect, long peduncled racemes 15 to 25 centimeters long. Pods are oblong, flattened, purple-margined, flat, and elongated with a prominent
beak, about 7 to 12 centimeters long and 2 centimeters wide, containing 3 to 5 seeds.
Distribution
- Commonly cultivated
throughout the settled areas in the Philippines.
- In some regions, naturalized.
- Now pantropic in cultivation.
Constituents
- Young pods are fairly good source of calcium and iron.
- Seeds yield protein, 23%; fat, 1.8%: ash, 3.5%; hydrocyanic acid, emulsin, allantoinase, and vitamin C1.
Properties
- Considered tonic, febrifuge,
stomachic, antispasmodic.
- Boiled ripe seeds considered carminative.
- Seeds considered aphrodisiac.
- Flowers considered emmenagogue.
Propagation
Propagation
by seeds. Cultivated for market produce. Pods are harvested about
4 months after planting.
Parts used
and preparation
Leaves, bean, roots.
Uses
Edibility / Nutritional
Tender pods, seeds and
young leaves used as vegetable.
Young leaves and pods are good sources of calcium, iron, vitaminn C,
and other minerals.
 Folkloric
Infusion of leaves used
for gonorrhea.
Poultice of leaves for snake bites.
Leaves used for menorrhagia and leucorrhea.
Juice of the leaves mixed with lime, applied to tumors and abscesses.
Salted juice from the pods used for ear inflammation and sore throat.
The Malays
make of poultice of the leaves mixed with rice-flowers and tumeric used
for eczema.
In Indo-China,
Infusion of leaves for colic; flowers used as emmenagogue.
Flowers prescribed for menorrhagia and leucorrhea.
Seeds are considered aphrodisiac; also used to stop nose bleeds.
In China, boiled ripe seeds used as tonic and carminative.
Seeds used as febrifuge, stomachic, and antispasmodic.
Studies
• Stem Cell Preservation
Factor: Stem
cell preservation factor FRIL (Flt3 receptor-interacting lectin), a
plant lectin extracted from Dolichos lablas was found to preserve hematopoietic
stems cells in vitro for a month.
• Hypocholesterolemic:
Diet supplemented with D. lablab seeds showed a hypocholesterolemic
effect.
• Cholecystokinin Secretion:
A peptide derived from dolicholin, a phaseolin-like protein from D lablab
potently stimulated cholecystokinin secretion from enteroendocrine STC-1
cells.and suppressed food intake.
• Antimicrobial / Antifungal:
n-Hexane and chloroform extracts of Dolichos lablab exhibited significant antimicrobial and antifungal activity against B subtilis, S aureus, P aeruginosa, E coli and C albicans.
Availability
Cultivated for market
produce.
Wildcrafted.
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