Botany
Katarai is a smooth vine with stems up to 3 meters long. Leaves are elliptic-lanceolate, 3.5 to 9 cm long, pointed-tipped, blunt-based, and distantly toothed at the margins. Flowering heads are 1.2 to 1.5 cm in diameter, clustered on the short, distant branches of a long, terminal hairy panicle. Corolla-lobes are hairy. Fruits are achenes, strongly 10-ribbed, and hairy. Pappus is white.

Distribution
- In thickets, openings in forests, old clearings, etc. at low and medium altitudes, ascending to a height of 1,100 meters, in Bontoc, Laguna and Quezon Provinces in Luzon; in Catanduanes, Mindoro, Palawan, Samar, Leyte, Mindanao, Basilan, and Jolo.
- Occurs in India to southern China, through Malaya to New Guinea.

Parts used
Roots.

Uses
Folkloric
In Malaya, root decoction is drunk for colic.

Studies
• Studies: Studies

Availability
Wild-crafted.