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Botany
Herb with thick rhizomes.
Leaves are basal, 2-ranked, linear-lanceolate, up to 50 cm long and
5 cm wide. Flowers are in umbels, 12- to 30-flowered, usually bright
blue-violet, crowded at the end of a long stalk,
Distribution
Usually cultivated for
ornamental pot plants in the Philippines.
Parts utilized
Rhizomes, leaves and roots.
Constituents
and Characteristics
Cardiac, stomachic, uterotonic.
oxytoxic, pectoral, expectorant, aperient, purgative, nephritic.
Saponins and sapogenins of the furostane and spirostane type, including
agapanthegenin and steroid spirostan sapogenins.
Anthycyanin gives the colors to the flowers.
Different Agapanthus species are sued for similar medicinal purposes.
Toxicology
Leaf may cause mouth pain
and ulcerations. May be irritating to the eyes and skin. Suspected but
unproven hemolytic effects.
Uses
Folkloric
No reported folkloric
medicinal use in the Philippines.
• A plant of fertility
and pregnancy – used by South African traditional healers as phytomedicine
to treat ailments related to pregnancy and to facilitate labor. Orally
or rectally, as a decoction, to ensure an easy delivery and a healthy
child. It may facilitate expulsion of the placenta and augment uterine
contractions. Roots worn as necklace for easy childbirth and fertility.
Decoction used in washing newborn babies; also, an infant tonic.
• Considered an aphrodisiac, used for impotency and barrenness.
• Leaves used around wrists to bring down fever.
Studies
• Oxytocic:
Studies have shown that the aequeous extract of Agapanthus africanus
leaves causes smooth muscle contractions in the uterine and ileal studies.
On isolated rat uterus, the leaf extract exhibited agonist effects on
the uterine muscarinic receptors and promoted synthesis of prostaglandins
in the estrogenized rat uterus. The study provided a pharmacologic explanation
for the ethnic use of A. africanus as herbal oxytocic in prolonged labor.
• Antifungal:
Ethanolic extract of A. Africanus rhizomes showed significant antifungal
activity against human pathogens–Trycchophyton mentagrophytes
and Sporothrix schenekii.
Availability
Ornamental cultivation.
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