Botany
Palis is a shrub growing 1 to 3 meters high. Younger plant parts are thinly or densely covered with short, stellately arranged, brownish or pale hairs. Leaves are ovate-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 5 to 15 centimeters long, 2.5 to 6 centimeters wide, with a long slender, pointed tip and pointed to blunt blase. Lowers surfaces of the leaves are densely covered with stellate hairs, and with numerous, small, waxy, yellow glands. Cymes are axillary, short-stalked, and 2 to 4 centimeters long. Flowers are pale purplish or lavender, and about 3 millimeters long. Fruit is a berry, fleshy, rounded, pale lavender, and 4 to 5 millimeters in diameter.

Distribution
- Throughout the Philippines in thickets and secondary forests at low and medium altitudes.
- Sometimes cultivated as an ornamental.
- Also in China, Taiwan, and Japan.

Constituents
- Ethanol extract yielded four new iridoid glycosides, 6-O -benzoylphlorigidoside B, 6-O-trans-cinna- moylphlorigidoside B, 6-O-trans-p-coumaroylshanzhiside methyl ester, and 4'- O-trans-p-coumaroylmussaenoside together with known constituents, 6b-hydroxyipolamiide and phlorigidoside B, in addition to five known clerodane diterpenoids, hardwickiic acid, monomethyl kola- vate, echinophyllin C, clerodermic acid methyl ester, and 15,16-dihydro-15-methoxy-16-oxo- hardwickiic acid.
- Study of fresh leaves yielded two new naturally occurring flavonoids, 3,4',5,7-tetramethoxyflavone and 3,3',4',5,7-pentamethoxyflavone, along with known compounds, 5-hydroxy-3,4',7-trimethoxyflavone, 5-hydroxy-3,3',4,7-tetramethoxyflavone, ursolic acid, 2α,3α-dihydroxyurs-12-en-28-oic acid, phytosterols, and phytosteryl glucosides.

Parts used
Leaves.

Uses
Folkloric
- Leaves are smoked like stramonium to combat dyspnea.
- Fresh and crushed leaves are used to stupefy fish.
- Used as insecticide.
- In Taiwanese folk medicine, used to treat rheumatism and disorders of the digestive tract (oral infections and various stomach and intestinal complaints).

Studies
• Constituents / Antioxidant: Study of essential oil from the leaves of C. formosana yielded 48 constituents. Main components were (-) spathulenol (20.3%), ß-caryophyllene (17.22%), germacrene D (8.06%), ß-eudesmene (5.52%). The tested oils at three concentrations displayed scavenging ability of radical DPPH in a concentration-effect relationship.
• New Iridoid Glycosides: Ethanol extract yielded four new iridoid glycosides. (See Constituents)

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
LAMIACEAE Callicarpa / Plants For Use
(2)
Chemical Constituents and Antioxidant Activity of the Essential Oils from the Leaves of Callicarpa formosana Rolfe / Lin Chao-Zhan, Zhu Chen-chen et al / / CNKI:SUN:RYZB.0.2009-04-016
(3)
New iridoid glycosides from the twigs and leaves of Callicarpa formosana var. formosana / Yu-Mei Wang , Huai Xiao, Ji-Kai Liu & Fei Wang / Journal of Asian Natural Products Research, 12:3, 220-226
(4)
Studies on the constituents of callicarpa formosana rolfe / Journal of the Chinese Chemical Society 33(4) : p.329-334 (1986), 2011-10-24T06:19:42Z
(5)
BIOLOGICALLY ACTIVE NATURAL PRODUCTS OF THE GENUS CALLICARPA / William P Jones and A Douglas Kinghorn / Curr Bioact Compd. 2008 June 1; 4(1): 15–32. / doi: 10.2174/157340708784533393