|  Botany
Parol-parolan is a slender, herbaceous, more
or less hairy vine, 1 to 3 meters in length.
Leaves are trifoliate, and 5 to 9 centimeters long. Leaflets are ovate
to lanceolate, and 1 to 5 centimeters long, with coarsely toothed or lobed margins. Flowers are small, white, and about 2.5 millimeters long. Sepals are 4, concave,
the outer ones small. Petals are 4, two larger ones usually adhering to the
sepals and with an emarginate scale above the base, the smaller 2 ones
distant from the stamens. Stamens are 8, excentric, filaments free or connate
at the base. Ovary is 3-celled, style 3-fid, ovules solitary. Fruits areinflated, obovoid, 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters long, somewhat triangular
and 3-keeled. Seeds are round and black, with a prominent,
white, heart-shaped aril at the base.
Distribution
- Throughout the Philippines
in thickets and waste places, etc., in the settled areas.
- Certainly introduced into the Archipelago.
- Now pantropic.
Constituents
• Plant yields saponins, tannins, alkaloids, flavonoids, proanthocyanidin,
apigenin, phytosterols, glycosides and cardiac glycosides.
• Fruit or the seeds yield an essential oil, bitter and stimulant.
Properties
• Mild, bitter and pungent tasting,
cooling in effect.
• Considered antiphlogistic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, blood refrigerant, anti-infectious,
diuretic, emetic, emmenagogue, febrifuge, laxative, stomachic, sudorific.
 Uses
Nutrition / Culinary
• Leaves are edible.
• Leaves and young shoots, cooked, used as spinach.
Folkloric
• In the Philippines, decoction of roots used as diaphoretic, and used for catarrh of the bladder.
• Leaves are used internally as a beverage as an anti-rheumatic; externally applied as oil embrocations.
• Cold,
fever, renal edema, urinary tract infections.
• Furuncle, carbuncle, eczema.
• Sprains and external wounds.
• Dosage: use 12 to 15 gms dried material or 15 to 30 gms fresh
material in decoction. Pounded fresh material may be used as poultice,
decoction of fresh material may be used as external wash.
• Elsewhere, poultice of leaves used for rheumatism, swellings, orchitis, and dropsy.
• Used as a hair wash.
• Leaf juice used for earaches or meatal discharges.
• Plant used as diuretic, stomachic, rubefacient, cholagogue, and pectoral.
• Decoction of root and leaves used for rheumatism, nervous diseases, piles, chronic bronchitis, and phthisis; also used for amenorrhea.
• In Sindh, roots used as diaphoretic, diuretic, and aperient. Decoction of roots used for piles and amenorrhea.
• Roots used as emetic and laxative.
• Fried leaves are applied to the pubis to increase menstrual flow in amenorrhea.
• Leaves boiled in castor oil applied for rheumatism, pains, swellings, tumors of various kinds.
• In the Malabar coast, leaves are used for pulmonary complaints.
• In Martinique, leaves are used as diuretic and stimulant.
• In Ayurveda, used for rheumatism, fever and earache.
Others
• Seed oii reported to be an effective
insect repellent.
Studies
• Antifilarial:
Study of extracts of CH was done on adult worms and microfilariae of
Brugia pahangi. Results showed that the aqueous extracts had mild but
definite direct macrofilarial action on B pahangi.
• Antiparasitic:
Extracts of CH tested in vitro against third-stage larvae of Strongyloides
stercoralis showed immobilization (nonmotility) rates better than ivermectin
and piperazine.
 • Antidiarrheal:
Study showed the antidiarrheal activity of the extracts of C halicacabum,
probably due to the presence of phytochemicals–sterols, tannins,
flavonoids and triterpenes.
• Antiinflammatory:
Study showed inhibitory effects of CH leaf extract on the production
of pro-inflammatory mediators, nitric oxide (NO) and tumor necrosis
factor-alpha. CH exhibited antiinflammatory properties that justifies
its use in rheumatoid arthritis treatment.
• Anti-Inflammatory / Analgesic:
Study showed the ethanol extract dose-dependently inhibited mRNA expression of COX-2, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, iNOS, and COX-2 expression.
• Antihyperglycemic:
Study in STZ diabetic rats show that CHE extract possesses a dose-dependent antihyperglycemic activity
- decreasing plasma glucose and HbA1c, increasing levels of insulin and Hb. and provides evidence for its traditional use in diabetes control.
• Anxiolytic:
Study of mice in various anxiety models showed the alcoholic and aqueous extract of C. helicacabum possess anti-anxiety activity.
The results explains the mechanisms behind the anti-inflammatory and analgesic activity of C. helicacabum.
• Antioxidant / Anti-Inflammatory:
Ethanolic extract of CH exhibited anti-inflammtory activity by suppressing TNF-a and NO. The mechanism might be related to the decrement of the level of MDA in the edema paw via increased activities of CAT, SOT, and GPx. Results showed a potential as natural antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent.
Availability
Wild-crafted. |
