Botany
Kangkong-kalabau is a prostrate, spreading, annual herb. Stems are somewhat fleshy, 30 cm or more in length, branched, rooting at the lower nodes, and somewhat hairy. Leaves are stalkless, linear-oblong, 3 to 5 cm in length, pointed or blunt at the tip, usually truncate at the base, and somewhat toothed at the margins. Floweriing heads are without stalks, borne singly in the axils of the leaves, and excluding the bracts, are less than 1 cm in diameter. Outer pair of the involucral bracts is ovate and 1 to 1.2 cm long; the inner pair is somewhat smaller. Flowers are white or greenish-white. Achenes are closed by rigid receptacle-scales. Pappus is absent.
Distribution
In the Rizal Province in Luzon and occasinal along the banks of small streams in and about Manila.
Certainly introduced.
Also found in tropical Africa and Asia to Malaya.
Constituents
- Study yielded flavonoids, tannins and saponins.
- Leaf extract study yileded two new chlorine containing melampolids, in addition to three known sesquiterpene lactones.
Properties
Leaves are antibilious.
Demulcent, cooling, laxative.
Parts used
Leaves, young plant parts.
Uses
Edibility
In Malaya, young parts are used as salad.
Sometimes steamed before they are eaten.
In Assam, India, young shoots useds as begetable.
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, leaves are pressed and applied to the skin as a cure for certain herpetic eruptions.
- The Malays use the young parts and bitter leaves as laxative.
- Leaves used for diseases of the skin and nervous system.
- In Calcutta, fresh juice of leaves used as adjunct to tonic medicines; used for neuralgia and other nervous diseases. In Indian medicine, also used for various skin diseases and as a laxative.
- In Assam, India, plant juices used for skin diseases, nervous disorders and high blood pressure.
- Expressed juice of leaves used as demulcent in cases of gonorrhea; mixed with cow's or goat's milk.
- As a cooling agent, leaves are pounded and made into paste and applied cold to the head.
- Plant used for torpidity of the liver. Infusion is prepared the previous evening, boiled with rice and taken with mustard oil and salt.
- In Ayurveda, used for liver disorders, skin and nervous disorders; also, as laxative.
Studies
• Antimicrobial: Study results showed extract variations, but the methanol extract of A. longifolia, I. aquatica and Enhydra fluctuans showed antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacteria - S. aureus, P. aeruginosa, E coli and M. luteu.
• Antioxidant: Study showed the crude extract to contain flavonoids, saponins and tannins. The ethyl acetate fractions showed the highest free radical scavenging activity
• Analgesic: Study evaluating the analgesic activity showed promising results in both acetic acid-induced writhing and the tail-flick methoes.
• Antidiarrheal: Study of the methanol and aqueous extracts of the whole plant showed antidiarrheal activity on castor-oil induced diarrhea. The methanolic extract moderately inhibited growth of S. dysenteriae, S. boydii and S. flexneri; the aqueous extract inhibited growth of S. aureus, S. dysenteriae and S. boydii.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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