Botany:
· A stout erect, smooth, rank-smelling, half-woody annual, 1 m or less in height.
· Leaves: 8 to 12 cm long and pinnately compound with 6 leaflets. Leaves are furnished with glands on the main rachis between leaflets. Leaflets oblong-ovate or obovate and 2 to 5 cm long.
· Flowers: crowded in pairs, in the axils of the upper leaves and about 1.5 cm across/
Calyx-tube short, sepals imbricate. Petals 5, yellow, subequal. Stamens 10, rarely all perfect, 3 to 5 being reduced to staminodes or sometimes absent, anthers mostly basifixed opening by terminal spores or with the slit more or less continuous downward. Ovary sessile or stalked.
· Fruits: slender pods, up to 15 cm long and 3 to 4 mm thick. Seeds are flattened in the same direction as the pod.

Distribution
A very common weed throughout the Philippines, in settled areas at low and medium altitudes.

Parts utilized:
· Seeds, leaves, roots.
· Collect pods from August to October when the seeds are about to ripen.
· Sun-dry, remove the pericarp before using.

Properties
Sweet tasting, slightly cooling.
Diuretic, laxative.
Leaves are aperient, antiperiodic, alterative, febrifuge, anthelminthic, digestive.

Folkloric uses
· Decoction of 9-15 g of seeds used for hepatitis, edema associated with liver problems, hypertension, infantile convulsion, night blindness due to fever, habitual constipation.
· Infusion of leaves used for intestinal disorders. Decoction is mildly laxative.
· Poultice of seeds and leaves used for scabies, ringworm and eczema.
· Paste of the roots used for ringworm.
· Seeds used as coffee substitute.

Availability
Wild-crafted.