Botany
Sapin-sapin is an erect or ascending herb. Stems are often prostrate and rooting below, about 20 to 50 centimeters long and sparingly hairy or nearly smooth. Leaves are thin, ovate, 5 to 10 centimeters long, magins entire or nearly so, pointed at the tip, and widened at the base. Flowers are small, purple or white, and borne in spikelike, terminal inflorescences, occurring mostly in pairs, each pair subtended by a leaflike, ovate, persistent, 1- to 1.5 centimeters long bract and two smaller brancteoles. Calyx is 4 to 5 millimeters long, hairy, slightly curved, and divided into 5 linear lobes. Corolla is tubular, hairy, slightly curved, about 1.3 centimeters long, and slightly exserted from the bracts. Capsule is ovoid, somewhat compressed and about 6 millimeters long.

Distribution
- Common in waste places, in open thickets, on and about old walls, in and around towns at low altitudes throughout the Philippines.
- Introduced from Mexico.
- Naturalized in Taiwan and the Marianne Islands.

Properties
- Antiblennorrhagic, vulnerary.

Parts used
Entire plant, leaves.

Uses
Folkloric
- Entire plant in decoction is used as an antiblenorrhagic.
- Pounded leaves used as vulnerary.

Studies
No published studies found.

Availability
Wild-crafted.