Gen info
The genus Paspalum has about 200 species widely distributed in the tropics and subtropics of both hemispheres. Many provide forage or pasture grass for cattle and horses.

Botany
Laua-laua is a gregariously stoloniferous grass. Stems are spreading and branching below withe the flowering branches 20 to 70 centimeters high. Leaves are narrow lanceolate, flat and thin, glabroous, 8 to 20 centimeters long, 5 to 15 millimeters wide. Spikes are two, terminal, slender and 6 to 12 centimeters long. The spikelets are imbricate, 1.2 to 1.4 millimeters long, pale-green, plano-convex, the empty glumes with long, soft, white marginal hairs.

Distribution
- Grass is found in abundance in open waste places and settled areas, about towns, along trails, streams throughout the Philippines.
- Considered a weed but sometimes planted as a coarse ground cover grass.
- Native of tropical America.
- Now pantropic.

Parts utilized:
Fresh roots.

Properties and constituents
- Phytochemical study yielded glycosides, saponins and steroids.

Uses
Folkloric
- Decoction of fresh roots are taken internally for diarrhea.
- In Africa, leaves used for fever, debility, stomach troubles and pulmonary afflictions; roots used for diarrhea and dysentery
- In Gabon, pounded with the leafof Desmodium salicifolium and applied as compresss for contusions, sprains and dislocations.
- In Congo, the leaves used with Macaranga sp and Renealmia sp. in a vapor bath for fever.
- In Cameroon, decoction of leaves, softened in hot ashes and ground in water, used for dysentery.
- In Trinidad, leaf infusions used for fever.
- In Malaysia, young leaves are pounded and applied as paste onto wounds and cuts.
- In Ecuadorian Amazon, infusion of the plant used for headaches. (The ethnobotanical efficacy may be due to an ergot-like fungus infestation.)
- In Zaire, as antivenom, decoction of whole plant is rubbed on the bite with the oil of Lebrunia bushaie.
Others
- In Africa, grass provides good grazing for cattles and horses, taken before seed-set.
- Cats and dogs said to eat the leaf as purgative.

Studies
• Fatty Acid Synthetase Inhibitor / Antifungal: FAS has been identified as a potential antifungal target. In a study that included Paspalum conjugatum, FAS was prrepared from thirteen compounds including three new natural products, representing five chemotypes: isoflavones,, flavones, biflavonoids, hydrolyzable tannin-related derivatives and triterpenoids. Although there were several antifungal components in the set, FAS inhibitory activity could not be correlated with antifungal activity.

Availability
Wild-crafted.