| Botany
Despite its name, not a bamboo, but an evergreen shrub growing to 2.5 meters high, with numerous unbranched stems growing from the roots. Leaves are 2- to 3-pinnate, with narrow leaflets up to 5 cm long, pink to red before turning green. Flowers are small, white, in panicles, up to 30 cm long. Fruit is a bright red berry.
Distribution
Recently introduced to the Philippines.
Still rare in cultivation.
Parts utilized
Roots and fruits.
Properties
and constituents
• Berries contain alkaloids such as nanterine, used in research as an antidote to MDMA.
• All parts of the plant are poisonous, containing hydrocyanic acid, and can be fatal if ingested.
• Study has isolated an alkaloid, nantenine, with ability to block chemically induced head-twitching in mice.
• Study isolated a tyrosinase-inhibiting compound, 4-ß-D-glucopyranosyloxybenzoic acid.
Uses
Folkloric
No medicinal folkloric use in the Philippines.
In Chinese medicine, dried berries used for cough. Also, tonics are derived from the bark and root-bark are used for eye conditions, flu, muscle pain, rheumatism, gastrointestinal maladies and fever.
Studies
• Antifungal:
Study of oil and extracts revealed antidermatophytic effect against Trichophyton rubrum, T mentagrophytes, Microsporum canis. Results suggest that N domestica mediated oil and extracts could be a potential source of natural fungicides to control certain important dermatophytic fungi.
• Nantenine / Adrenergic Pressor Inhibition: Nantenine isolated from Nandina domestica showed it has antagonistic activities on a1-adrenoreceptors, a2-adrenoreceptors and 5-HT2A receptors in pithed rats.
• Cyanogenic Glucoside: Study isolated a new cyanogenic glucoside, p-glucosyloxymandelonitrile, in the young shoots o N domestica.
• Radical Scavenging: Study to determine free radical scavenging activity of leaf extracts showed N domestica to be among those with the highest IC50 values.
Availability
Cultivated.
|
