Botany
· A moderately sized tree, 3 to 6 m high, with reddish or yellowish brown, smooth bark, marked with long horizontal lenticels.
· Leaves: ovate, 5 to 20 cm long, 1.5 to 8 cm wide, withy tapering pointed tips, and 3-nerved, heart-shaped base, sharply-toothed margin, of hairy texture when young and rough when mature.
· Flowers: unisexual. The female flowers numerous and crowded in short spikes.
· Fruit: axillary, peduncled, dark purple or nearly black when ripe, fleshy and 1.5 - 3 cm long, edible.

Distribution
Widely cultivated.
Naturalized in Batanes islands and Cagayan province.

Constituents
Tannins; phytosterols; sulfur; essential oils; saponins.

Parts utilized
· Leaves, fruits, twigs, roots.
· Leaves: Harvest in November to January; sun-dry.
· Twigs: Harvest the green, soft twigs, air-dry a little, cut into pieces and sun-dry.
· Fruits: Harvest the reddish fruit (not yet fully ripe), remove peduncles and sun-dry.
· Roots: Collect from August to September, steam cure, then sun-dry.

Properties
· Roots: Sweet tasting, rcooling, sedating, diuretic, tonic and astringent remedy in nervous disorders.
· Twigs: bitter tasting, antirheumatic, good nervine.
· Leaves: Sweet-tasting, refrigerant, antipyretic.
· Fruits are sweet-acidic tasting, neither warming nor cooling, liver-kidney tonic, blood-stimulating.

Uses
Folkloric
· For headaches, cough, and fever associated with influenza: Mix 6 to 12 gms of morera leaf preparation with Chrysanthemum and Mentha in 5:3:1 proportions. Boil to a concentrated decoction and drink.
· For persons who lacrimate when their faces are exposed to the wind: use 6 to 12 gms of leaf preparation with an equal volume of Sesame preparation, grind to a powder and drink with warm water.
· Constipation in the elderly: 6 to 15 gms dried fruit preparation, boil to a concentrated decoction and drink.
· Backache: 9-15 gms twig preparation, boil to a concentrated decoction and drink.
· Eyestrain causing reddening and pain in the eyes: get leaf preparation, steam in water, and expose eyes to the smoke which emanates from the preparation.
· Fever arising from lung complications, cough, and hemoptysis; also skin edema: use 9-15 gms of bark in decoction.
· Rheumatic arthritis, lumbago, leg pains: use 9-15 gm Morus twig material.
· Fever, cold and coughing: use 6 to 9 gms leafy drug in decoction.
Others
Young leaves eaten as vegetable.
Bark used in early China for making paper.
New
Cosmetic: Extract of roots for skin whitening (Japan); used in the manuafacture of hair care and hair-growth/tonic products.

Availability
Wild-crafted.