Gen info
There are about 500 species in the genus Ixora. A few are in cultivation. There are numerous cultivars difffering in flower color (yellow, pink, orange) and plant size. Several cultivars are dwarfs, under 3 ft. Other noteworthy ornamental santans: santan puti (Ixora finlaysoniana Wall), a shrub 2-4 m high, with white fragrant flowers; and Philippine santan (Ixora philippinensis Merr), a shrub or small tree, with white to pink flowers.

Botany
Santan-puti is a shurb or small tree, growing up to 5 meters high. Leaves are oblong-lanceolate, with tapered and pointed tips. Blade is dark green and glossy. Flowers are many and in dense clusters, white and fragrant.

Distribution
- Cultivated for ornamental purposes.
- Introduced to the Philippines during the American period.
- Probably native to Thailand.

Uses
Folkloric
No reported folkloric medicinal use in the Philippines.

Studies
•Antigestagenic: Oral administration of a crude ethanolic extract of aerial parts of Ixora finlaysoniana to female rats on post-coital days 1-5 or 1-7 prevented pregnancy in 100% of cases. The extract at its contraceptive dose exerts a differential estrogenic response at the fallopian tube and uterine levels, also causing slight asynchrony in development and tubal transport rate, with anti-implantation and post-implantation resorptive actions not mediated via altered ovarian function.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Cultivated.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Antigestagenic activity of Ixora finlaysoniana in rat. / Singh MM, Chowdhury SR, Kulshreshtha DK, Kamboj VP / Contraception. 1993 Aug;48(2):178-91.