General
info
Cycas, the single
genus of the family Cycadaceae, consists of about 100 species, chiefly
Indo-Chinese (40) and Australian (27).
Botany
Commonly confused
with Cycas revoluta, but pitogo is a much larger plant, with larger
leaves and smooth and glabrous ovules. Trunk is stout, growing to
a height of 12 meters, 20 to 50 cm in diameter, with a round and symmetrical
crown. Leaves are 1.5 to 2.5 meters long, crowded at the apex of the
trunk, leaflets are 20-30a cm long, about 1 cm wide, smooth and shining,
falcate, 45 to 90 on each side of the midrib. Male cones are terminal,
elongated-cylindric ro ovoid-cylindric. Leaves are numerous, about
30 cm long and densely rusty-tomentose. Fruit is smoth, ovoid to ellipsoid,
3 to 5 cm long.
Distribution
Found along or near
the seashore. Occasional growths in forests.
Constituents and characteristics
Toxicity from a
glucoside in the seeds, with phytosterine.
The plant yields a resin that is used medicinally in India.
Yields a gum resembling tragacanth.
Male bracts believed to be narcoti, stimulant and aphrodisiac.
Parts used and preparation
Fruit, seeds.
Uses
Folkloric
Resin is used for malignant
ulcers, facilitating suppuration.
Male bracts used are a narcotic, stimulant and aphrodisiac.
Powdered roasted whole seed is mixed with coconut oil and applied
to wounds, boils, itchy skin lesions.
Poultice of fruit-bearing cone is applied to loins for nephritic pains.
Tincture from pericarp of seed and bark is used for edematous swellings.
Seeds are used for dizziness, headaches, and sore throats.
Poultice of bark used for swellings.
Juice of young mucilaginous leaves used for flatulence and vomiting
of blood.
Nutritional
Ripe seeds are used
as food in times of famine. The untreated seeds may be poisonous.
The starch from the trunk and seed is considered superior to Caryota
flour but inferior to rice flour.
In some parts of the Philippines, the young leaves (still rolled up)
are cooked and eaten as vegetable.
Others
Leaves used in religious
ceremonies.
Studies
•
Medical Hypothesis: Cycad neurotoxins and flying foxes connect:
The high incidence of neurodegenerative diseases (ALS-PDC) among the
Chamorro people of Guam is proposed as connected to the consumption
of flying foxes high on plant neurotoxins from its foraging on neurotoxic
cycad seeds.
• The cycad neurotoxic amino acid, ß-N-methylamino- -alanine
(BMAA), elevates intracellular calcium levels in dissociated rat brain
cells.
• Aromatase Inhibitors / Estrogen-Dependent Tumors:
In a study of tropical plants searching for inhibitors of the cytochrome P-450 aromatase which may be efficacious in treating estrogen-dependent tumores, extracts of 5 cycad folia, including Cycas rumphii, were all found to contain inhibitors of the human enzyme.
Availability
Wildcrafted.
|
