Botany
Kangai is a shrub of 2 or 3 meters in height, with pinnately compound leaves varying considerably in length, sometimes reaching 25 cm. Branchlets are unarmed. Leaflets are usually fairly smooth, variable in form and size, ovate, obovate, or oblong-elliptic, the terminal one being largest, averaging 8 cm long. Flowers are fairly small, whitish or greenish, borne on the upper axils on depauperate panicles, 8 cm or less in length. Fruit is small, 5 to 6 cm in diameter. Seeds are black.

Distribution
- In Benguet, Zambales, Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Batangas, and Camarines Provinces in Luzon; in Palawan; and in Mindanao, in thickets and forests, chiefly at medium altitudes, in Benguet, ascending to 2,200 meters.
- Also occurs in southeastern China.

Constituents
- Studies have isolated flavonoids, alkaloids, coumarins and terpenoids.
- Study yielded bishordeninyl terpene alkaloids from the leaves - (-)-culantraramine and (-)-culantraraminol, together with (-)-culantraramine N-oxide, (-)-culantraraminol N-oxide and avicennamine.
- Bark has yielded hisperidin and diosmin. (Hisperidin appears to strengthen weak capillary vessels and used for treatment of conditions characterized by bleeding.)

Properties
Bark is bitter; considered astringent and tonic.

Parts used
Stems and bark.

Uses
Folkloric
Decoction of stem used as stomach tonic; also, used as antidote for snake bites.
Bark used as tonic.

Studies
• Neolignans / Anti-Inflammatory: Study of stem wood of ZA yielded 8 new compounds, including four new neolignans, together with 18 known compounds.The MeOH extract of Z. aVicennae inhibited FMLP/CB- induced superoxide anion generation by human neutrophils and elastase release in a
concentration-dependent manner.
• Anti-Cancer: Study investigating the effects of Ying Bu Bo extracts on HA22T human hepatocellular carcinoma cells in vitro and an in vivo mouse xenograft model showed dose-dependent induction of apoptosis, up-regulated death receptor apoptotic pathway markers and mitochondrial proteins, and suppressed protein survival. Results indicates YBBEs significantly promoted dose-dependent HA22T apoptosis and reduced tumor sizes in xenograft mice model.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Bishordeninyl terpene alkaloids from Zanthoxylum avicennae / Trinh Thi Thuy, Andrea Porzel, Helmut Ripperger et al / Phytochemistry, Volume 50, Issue 5, 10 March 1999, Pages 903-907 / doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(98)00612-8
(2)
Neolignans, a Coumarinolignan, Lignan Derivatives, and a Chromene: Anti-inflammatory
Constituents from Zanthoxylum avicennae / Jih-Jung Chen, Tzu-Ying Wang and Tsong-Long Hwang / J. Nat. Prod. 2008, 71, 212–217
(3)
Zanthoxylum avicennae extracts induce cell apoptosis through protein phosphatase 2A activation in HA22T human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and block tumor growth in xenografted nude mice / Dung TD, Chang HC et al / Int J Mol Med. 2011 Dec;28(6):927-36. doi: 10.3892/ijmm.2011.780. Epub 2011 Aug 19.