Botany:
Botonesan is a stout, erect, nonaromatic, hairy, annual herb, about 0.5 to 1.5 meters high, with green or purplish 4-angled stems. Leaves are lanceolate, 8 to 14 centimeters long, with toothed margins. Flowers are numerous, crowded in long-peduncles, growing up to 10 centimeters in length and the heads 1to 2 centimeters in diamter with basal involucres of hairy bracts. Calyx is green, 4 millimeters long, accrescent, 8 millimeters long in fruit. Corolla is white, 6 millimeters long.

Distribution
- From northern Luzon (Cagayan) to Mindanao, In all or most islands and provinces, as a weed in settled areas, occurring in open, waste places, fallow rice paddies, etc.
- Introduced from Mexico.
- Now also established in the Marianne and Caroline Islands in Taiwan, in Java, and in Amboina.

Constituents
• Contains alkaloids, camphor, cyanogenic glycosides and alkaloids.
• Study isolated two new compounds: a lignan and a pyrone; with no alkaloids.

Properties
- Tonic, stimulant, vulnerary.

Parts utilized
Leaves, roots

Uses
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, decoction of leaves used to clean wounds.
- Decoction of roots used for amenorrhea.
- Used by the Maranaos for dry cough and tooth aches; gas pains in infants and convulsions in children.
- In Malaysia, used for stomach ache; the young leaves are pounded into a paste and applied to the affected areas.
- In Martinique, used as tonic and excitant.
- In Antilles, used as a stimulant.
- In Costa Rica, used for toothaches.
- In Bangladesh, leaf juice is taken orally for malaria. Root and leaf paste is applied to cuts and abrasions to prevent infection.

Studies
• Cytotoxicity: Study isolated five triterpene acids including new hyptatic acids. Hyptatic acid A and 2a-hydroxyursolic acid demonstrated in vitro cytotoxicity in human colon HCT-8 tumor cells.
• Oleanolic Acid / Pomolic Acid / Anti-HIV Activity: Oleanolic acid was identified as anti-HIV principle from several plants, including Hyptis capitata. Study also isolated pomolic acid from H capitata, also identified as an anti-HIV agent.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
A lignan and pyrone and other constituents from Hyptis capitata / Almtorp, G.T. : Hazell, A.C. : Torssell, K.B.G.
(2)
Cytototoxic Principles of Hyptis capitata and the Structures of the New Triterpenes Hyptatic Acid-A and - B / Takashi Yamagishi et al / Phytochemistry - Vol 27 No 10, pp 3213-3216, 1988
(3)
Antimicrobial Screening of Maranao Medicinal Plants / Carmelita G. Hansel and Verna B. Lagare
(4)
Anti-AIDS Agents. 30. Anti-HIV Activity of Oleanolic Acid, Pomolic Acid, and Structurally Related Triterpenoids / Yoshiki Kashiwada et al / J. Nat. Prod., 1998, 61 (9), pp 1090–1095
DOI: 10.1021/np9800710
(5)
Inherited folk pharmaceutical knowledge of tribal people in the Chittagong Hill tracts, Bangladesh / Indian Journ of Traditional Knowledge, Vol 9, No 1, Jan 2010, Pp 77-89