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Botany
Bignay is a small, smooth, dioecious
tree, 4 to 10 meters high. Leaves are shiny, oblong, 8 to 20 centimeters long, pointed at the tip, rounded or pointed at the base. Spikes are axillary or terminal, simple, and usually 5 to 15 centimeters long. Flowers are small and green. Male flowers are about 1.5 millimeters in diameter, borne on spikes, while the female flowers grow out on racemes. Fruit is fleshy, red, acid, edible, ovoid, and about 8 millimeters long, single-seeded, and borne in grapelike pendant clusters (often paired), wrinkled when dry, the seed becoming somewhat compressed.
Note: The plant
is very similar to Binayoyo (Antidesma ghaesembilla) differing
in the general outline of the leaves which is broadly elliptic
or obovate and being more rounded on both ends. The dorsal surface
is beset with soft hairs. The corolla lobes of the male (staminate)
flower is 5-parted.
Distribution
- Common from northern Luzon to Mindanao, in thickets, etc., in the vicinity of towns and settlements, and occasional in forests.
- Also reported in Sri Lanka, India, eastern Himalaya, Burma, Indo-China, China, Thailand, Indonesia, and Australia.
 Parts
utilized and preparation
· Parts
utilized: roots, leaves, and fruits.
· Roots and leaves, collected the year round.
· Fruits, collected May to July.
· Sun-dry.
Constituents
The bark is poisonous, containing an toxic alkaloid.
Contains phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanins and carotenoids.
Properties
Acidic tasting, warming
nature.
Astringent, antidysenteric.
Thirst quenching, induces salivation.
Antioxidative, anti-cancer.
Leaves are sudorific.
Uses
Edibility / Nutrition
Fruits made into jam and
jelly.
Fermented into vinegar, wine and brandy.
The leaves when young are edible, eaten raw, in salads, or stewed with rice.
Leaves used as substitute for tomato or vinegar to flavor fish and meat stews.
A good source of calcium and fair source of iron.
Folkloric
• Parched tongue,
lack of appetite, indigestion.
• Sprains.
• Dosage: use 15 to 30 gms dried material in decoction.
• Leaves used for snakebites.
• Leaves and fruits used for anemia and hypertension.
• Juice of fruits used for heart disease.
• Used for syphilitic affections.
Others
• Wood used for
fence posts, tool handles, walking sticks.
• Fruit is source of blue dye.
Studies
• Phytochemicals / Flavonoids: Analysis
on Flavanoids Contents in Mao Luang Fruits of Fifteen Cultivars (Antidesma
bunius), Grown in Northeast Thailand: Study showed 15 cultivars
to possess different amounts of flavonoids of catechin, proyanidins
B1 and B2.
• Cytotoxicity: (1) Biological
Activity of Bignay [Antidesma bunius (L.) Spreng] Crude Extract in Artemia
salina: Study suggests that bignay possibly contains compounds
with potential cytotoxic activity.
• Flavonoid
and Phenolic Content: An
analysis on flavonoids, phenolics and organic acids contents in brewed
red wines of both non-skin contact and skin contact fermentation techniques
of Mao Luang ripe fruits (Antidesma bunius) harvested from Phupan Valley
in Northeast Thailand: Skin
contact Mao Luang red wine showed higher amounts of flavonoids, phenolic
acids, anthocyanins of procyanidin B1 and procyanidin B2, organic acids
than non-skin contact red wine.
• Antioxidant: Study showed methanolic extracts of bignay berries exhibit a potential use as natural antioxidants.
• Cultivar Flavonoid Contents: Study to analyze the flavonoid contents in ripe fruits of 15 Mao Luang cultivars yielded three different kinds of flavonoids, i.e., catechin, procyanidin B1 and procyanidin B2.
• Antidiabetic: Study of bignay extracts in rats showed glucose lowering effect on fasted non-diabetic and alloxan-induced diabetic rats. The effect had the same therapeutic effect as glibenclamide and was attributed to phenolic contents and flavonoids.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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