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Family Pteridaceae
Pakong-anuang
Onychium siliculosum
(Desv.) C. Chr.

Scientific names  Common names 
Pteris siliculosa Desv. Buhok-virgin (Tag.)
Onychium auratum Kaulf. Pako (Bik., Ilk., Pamp.,Bis., Tag.) 
Cryptogramme aurata Prantl Dila-dila (Tag.)
Pteris crysocarpa Hook abd Grev. Pakong-anuang (Tag.)
  Pako (Tag.)
Pako is a local name shared by many medicinal plants: (1) Pako - Athyrium esculentum (2) Pakong-alagdan - Blechnum orientale (3) Pakong-anuanag, pako, buhok-virgin, dila-dila - Onychium siliculosum (4) Pakong-gubat, pakong kalabao, Pityrogramma calomelanos (5) Pakong-parang - Pteris mutilata (6) Pakong-roman - Ceratopteris thalictroides. (7) Pakong-tulog, pakong-cipres, Selaginella tamariscina (8) Pakong buwaya - Cyathea contaminans.

Botany
Pakong-anuang has rhizomes that are short, stout, and covered with lanceolate, brown, and spreading scales. Stipes are naked, erect, pale, and occasionally brownish, 10 to 30 cms long. The fronds are 15 to 40 cm longm, finely 3- to 4-pinnately divided. Pinnules are small, narrow, and numerous; sterile ones usually spatulate, less than 5 mm long, often toothed at the apex; the fertile ones are podlike, linear, entire, acuminate, 5 to 20 cm long and 1 to 2 mm wide. The indusium and sori are of a rich golden-yellow color.

Distribution
Along banks of streams.
In northern and central Luzon, and from Leyte to Mindanao.
Also found from India to China, and southward to Malaya.

Parts utilized
Rhizomes and young leaves.

Uses
Folkloric
• Juice of crushed leaves are used for thinning or falling hair.
• Decoction of fronds used for dysentery.
• In
Nepal, juice of rhizomes used for fever.
• In Bangladesh, root decoction taken thrice daily used to treat dysentery . For earaches, leaf juice is applied as eardrop.

Studies
Phytochemicals / Flavanone: Study yielded two new compounds: onitinoside and onysilin along with known compounds, pinostrobin, onitin,onitisin, campesterol, sitosterol, and n-alkanes.
Onitin / Antispasmodic / Smooth Muscle Relaxant:
(1) Onitin was found to be an active principle of the plant Onychium siliculosum. A rat and guinea pig study showed onitin is a non-specific smooth muscle relaxant similar to papaverine, but of a lesser extent. (2) Study investigated the pharmacologic properties of three phenolic pterosins - onitin, onitinoside and onitisin - isolated from O. siliculosum. The predominant effect was inhibition of contraction of isolated guinea-pig ileum. Of the three, onitin was the most potent, inhibiting both D and M receptors of 5-HT.


Availability
Wild-crafted.

Last Update April 2011

IMAGE SOURCE: Onychium auratum / 1884 / Darjeeling Ferns / mounted by Mrs. P. Jaffrey, Darjeeling. 45X35 cm./ Donated to the National Museum, Dublin, by Miss Knox; 1915 / National Botanic Gardens

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Flavanone and other constituents from Onychium siliculosum / Tian-Shung Wu, Cheng-Sheng Kuoh et al /

Phytochemistry, Vol 20, Issue 3, 13 March 1981, Pages 527-529 / doi:10.1016/S0031-9422(00)84186-2
(2)
Studies on the Taiwan Folk Medicine VI. Studies on Onitin / Yang Meei-Shieu / Planta medica ISSN 1439-0221, 1986, vol. 52, no1, pp. 25-27
(3)
Studies on the Taiwan Folk Medicine; III. A Smooth Muscle Relaxant from Onychium siliculosum, Onitin / S T Ho, M S Yang, T S Wu, C H Wang / Planta medicam Volume: 51, 1985 Apr
(4)
Medicinal plants used by Chakma tribe in Hill Tracts districts of Bangladesh / M Atiqur Rahman, S B Uddin and C C Wilcock / Indian Journ of Traditional Knowledge, Vol 6(3), July 2007, pp 508-517


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