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Botany
Puñgapung is a perennial, stemless herb. Corm is depressed-globose, up to 30 centimeters in diameter, flowering before leafing every year from the previous year's corm. Stemlike structure, which bears the lamina, is merely the petiole, 1 meter or more high, radically developed from the crom. Leaves are usually solitary, the blades up to 1 meter in diameter,
trisected, the segments dichotomous, the ultimate ones pinnately divided into oblong to oblong-obovate, acuminate lobes. Spathe is sessile, boradly campanulate, dull-purplish, the margins somewhat spreading or recurved, waved and crenulate, up to 30 centimeters
in diameter. Spadix (a spike of flowers contained in the spathe)
is hardly longer than the spathe, the appendage ovoid, variously sulcate or depressed, up to 15 centimeters long, are malodorous when
flowering.
Distribution
- Common throughout the Luzon provinces and in Mindoro, in thickets
and secondary forests, along roads, trails, etc., at low and medium altitudes in settled
areas.
- Occurs in India through Malaya to Polynesia.
Constituents
• Corm analysis: 74% moisture; 0.73% ash; 5.1% protein; 18% carbohydrate.
• Yields amblyone, a tritepenoid with antibacterial and cytotoxic activities
Graphic >
Spathe prior to
malodorous flowering stage.
Properties
• Tuberous roots are considered tonic, stomachic, appetizer, antibacterial,
antifungal and cytotoxic.
Properties
Corms are caustic, stomachic
and tonic.
Raphide crystals on the corm, petiole and leaves produce irritation upon contact with the skin.
Roots are emmenagogue.
Tubers are considered anodyne, aphrodisiac, antiinflammatory, antihemorrhoidal, emmenagogue, hemostatic, expectorant, carminative, digestive, stomachic, anthelmintic, liver tonic, rejuvenating and tonic.
Parts
utilized
Corm, roots, leaves.
Uses
Edible
• Leaves and roots.
• Rhizomes preferably cooked, acrid when raw. May cause
perioral burning and itching.
• Petioles of young unexpanded leaves are edible when thoroughly
cooked.
• Corms provides about 1,000 calories per kilo; comparable in food value
to kalabasa, superior to singkamas.
Folkloric
• Poultices of corm are antirheumatic. Also used for hemorrhoids.
• Roots are used for boils and hemorrhoids.
• Tubers are also used for hemorrhoids.
• In India, tuberous roots are used for treatment of piles, abdominal
pains, tumors, spleen enlargement, asthma and rheumatism. Also, corms used as restorative in dyspepsia, debility, etc. Roots used for boils and ophthalmia; also as an emmenagogue.
• In Ayurveda, traditionally used in arthralgia, elephantiasis, tumors, inflammations, hemorrhoids, hemorrhages, vomiting, cough, bronchitis, asthma, dyspepsia, colic, constipation, hepato-splenopathies, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, seminal weakness, fatigue and general debility.
• Corms applied externally to relive the pain of rheumatic swellings. When fresh, acts as acrid stimulant and expectorant.
Studies
• Antibacterial / Cytotoxic / Amblyone:
Amblyone, a triterpenoid isolated from A campanulatus showed to
have good antibacterial activity and moderate cytotoxic activity.
• Antibacterial / 3,5-diacetylambulin: 3,5-diacetylambulin, a flavonoid isolated from A. campanulatus showed antibacterial activites against 4 gram positive and 6 gram-negative bacterial
• Antioxidant / Hepatoprotective: (1) Study on
ethanolic and aqueous extracts of Amorphophallus campanulatus showed antioxidant activity. Results showed potent hepatoprotective action against carbon tetrachloride-induced hepatic damage. The possible mechanism of antioxidant activity may be due to the free radical scavenging potential from the flavonoids in the extracts. (2) Study of dried tuber on acetaminophen-induced hepatic injury in albino rats showed increase in levels of superoxide dismutase (DOS), catalase (CAT) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) suggesting hepatoprotective and antioxidant properties.
• Analgesic: Study on
the methanol extract of A campanulatus tuber showed significant analgesic activity.
• Immunomodulatory: Study of a methanol extract of AC tuber on immunological function in mice exhibited immunomodulatory activity by causing a decrease in charcoal clearance, spleen index and delayed-type hypersenstivity (DTH) reesponse.
• Phytochemicals / Anthelmintic: Corms yielded steroids, alkaloids, tannins, glycosides, carbohydrates, phenols, flavonoids, saponins, starch and proteins. Results showed the corm chloroform and methanol extracts and crude tannins showed good anthelmintic activity close to the standard drug albendazole.
• CNS Depressant Activity: Study showed a dose-dependent decrease in CNS activity with sedation and decrease in locomotor activity of the experimenting animal.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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