Botany
Epihyte with wide, creeping and glabrous
rhizomes. Stipes are scattered, 5-40 cm long and naked. Fronds are shiny
green, variably in size, from simple lanceolate to deeply pinnatifid,
10 to 40 cm long. Costae are prominent, but the venation is hardly visible.
Sori are very large, shallowly immersed and conspicuous on the upper
surface, in single rows along the main veins, or scattered, but not
numerous.
Distribution
Commonly distributed
in the Philippines, growing in the crown or trunks of trees and on rocks
along streams, at low and medium altitudes.
Parts used
Roots, branches, leaves.
Constituents
and properties
Contains glycirrhizin
and saponin.
Considered diaphoretic, aromatic and aperative.
Uses
Folkloric
In Indo-China, the young
leaves of the fern used for chronic diarrhea.
Studies
• Ecdysteroids: Study showed M scolopendria is an excellent source of ecdysone and 20-hydroxyecdysone. It also contains significant amounts of makisterones A and C, inokosterone and amarasterone A. The ecdysteroids are considered to be responsible for some of the medicinal properties.
Availability
Wildcrafted. |
