 Botany
Gingging is a shrub growing 1 to 5 meters high. Leaves usually have 3 to 5 pinnately arranged leaflets, though these are sometimes reduced to one or two, all forms being often found on the same plant. Leaflets are oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate, 5 to 18 centimeters long, and 2 to 7 centimeters wide. Flowers are small, white, about 6 millimeters in diameter, borne in axillary, soliltary or paired, interrupted, narrow, cymose panicles which are 5 centimeters long or less. Fruit is fleshy, pink or reddish, rounded, 1 centimeter in diameter, and contains a single nearly spherical seed which is about 4 millimeters in diameter. Mesocarp is fleshy and sweet.
Distribution
- In thickets and secondary forests at low and medium altitudes, ascending to 1,100 meters, from northern Luzon to Palawan and Mindanao, in most if not all islands and provinces.
- Also occurs in India to Indo-China and Malaya.
Constituents
- Study yielded carbohydrates, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins and phenolic acids.
- Contains the active principle, glycosmin, a crystalline glucoside, present in traces throughout the plant, its greatest concentration found in the new leaves and buds where it reaches 0.2 per cent; in the mature leaves, it varies from 0.08 to 0.1 per cent.
- Leaves also yield a tannin, a phlobaphene, traces of salicin, and about 2.1 per cent of sugars (reducing and non-reducing).
- From the leaves, study isolated glycolone, a quinolone alkaloid.
- From the root bark, study isolated carbazole and 3-methylcarbazole.
Properties
Glycosmin is slightly bitter.
Considered astringent, vermifuge, anti-inflammatory and expectorant.
Parts used
Stems, roots, bark and leaves.
Uses
Folkloric
- Bitter juice of leaves used for fevers, liver complaints and intestinal worms, especially in children.
- Stems and roots of plant used on ulcers.
- Paste of leaves, with a bit of ginger, applied to eczema and other skin diseases; also, applied over the navel for worms and other bowel disorders.
- Infusion of leaves given to women after delilvery to induce appetite.
- Wood is used for snake bites.
- Used for cough, jaundice, inflammation, rheumatism and anemia.
Others
Toothbrush: In eastern Bengal, stems used as toothbrushes for its fibrous nature and slightly astringent and bitter quality.
Studies
• Anthelmintic: Study showed extracts from G pentaphylla roots showed potent anthelmintic activity on the earthworm, Pheretima posthuma, the methanolic extract with greater activity than the chloroform extract.
• Hepatoprotective: Study evaluating the hepatoprotective activity of plant materials on Swiss albino rats with liver damage induced by CCl4 showed G. pentaphylla, B orellana, C caja, and C equisetifolia exhibited moderate dose-dependent protective effect evidenced by lowering of serum enzymes and supported by histopathological studies of liver tissue.
• Antibacterial: Study of the methanol extracts of seven medicinal plants, including Glycosmis pentaphylla, showed moderate activity against all the tested organisms.
• Sulfur-Containing Amides / Cytotoxicity: Chloroform extracts of G citrifolia and G elongata yielded a triterpene, four sulfur-containing amides (E-dambullin, Z-dambullin, E-methyldambullin and Z-methyldambulin) and two alkaloids (skimmianine and arborinine). The amides were strongly cytotoxic against a T-lymphoblastic leukemia cell line.
• Antioxidant: Study showed the extract of leaves of G. pentaphylla and Bauhinia variegata inhibited free radical scavenging activity. The effect was attributed to flavonoids, phenolics and other phytochemical constituents.
• Antipyretic: Study of ethanolic extracts of B. variegata and Glcosmis pentaphylla exhibited significant antipyretic activities in Brewer's yeast induced pyrexia in rats. Activity was attributed to inhhibition of prostaglandin synthesis in the hypothalamus.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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