| Botany
Low branching shrub with attractive
and variedly shaped and colored foliage. Leaves are thick and leathery,
ovate, oblong to linear, with entire margins, lobed or spirally twisted.
Young leaves are usually green, yellow or red, later changing to single
color or variegation of gold cream, white, red, maroon, purple, black
or brown. Flowers are small, long, axillary, usually unisexual racemes.
Distribution
A very popular cultivated ornamental
in the Philippines.
Parts utilized
Leaves.
Properties
and constituents
• Leaves are considered purgative,
sedative, antifungal, antiamoebic, antioxidant, and anticancerous.
• Considered emmenagogue and abortifacient.
• Studies have yielded alkaloids, terpenes, flavonoids.
• Study of six clone cultivars of Codiaeum
variegatum showed the shoots to be rich in alkaloids (most abundant),
cardiac glycosides, saponins, tannins, cardenolides, steroids and phyllates.
Uses
Folkloric
Freeze-dried leaf decoction taken
as tea in the Philippines (Gertrudes, 2006).
Decoction of crushed leaves for diarrhea.
Young leaves, with Pandanus macroieacceretia, coconut milk, and root
sap of areca catechu used for gonorrhea.
Sap of leaves mixed with coconut milk used for syphylitic lesions.
In Nigeria, root decoction
used for gastric ulcers. Leaves, for antibacterial and antiamoebic uses.
In the Kagera and Coast
regions, used for the treatment of epilepsy.
In Vanuatu, leaves used for amenorrhea. Chewing of 3 leaves and
swallowing the juice used as emmenagogue, to induce abortion or facilitate
parturition. source
Studies
• Phytochemicals: Phytochemical screening of six clone cultivars
of Codiaeum variegatum showed bioactive constituents that included alkaloids,
anthraquinones, flavanoids, terpenes, steroid, phenol, saponins, tannins,
phlobatannin and cardenolide which suggests their use as antibacterial,
antiamoebic and antifungal.
• Antiamoebic: In
a study of 55 traditional medicinal plants in Cameroon, only the leaves
extract of Codiaeum variegatum exhibited clear antiamoebic activity,
more pronounced than metronidazole.
• Anti-influenza:
A screening of seven Euphorbiaceae species showed C variegatum to be
one of three with relevant anti-FLUAV activity from an isolated cyanoglucoside.
• Anti-convulsant:
Study showed methanol extract portected mice against picrotoxin-induced
convulsions.
• Immunestimulating / Spermatotoxic:
Study on 24 male albino rats with feeds supplemented by pulverized dry leaves of C variegatum showed immunostimulating and spermatotoxic effects.
• Molluscicidal Activity:
Study showed the latex of Codiaeum variegatum had high molluscicidal activity against freshwater snail.
Toxicity
!
• Chewing on the bark and roots can cause burning
around and in the mouth. Some leaves are reported irritant. Latex have
been reported to cause eczema.
source
Availability
Cultivated.
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