|  Botany
Smooth or nearly smooth shrub or small
tree, 3 to 5 meters in height. Leaves are three or four times pinnately
compound, 50 to 80 cm long. Leaflets are elliptic-ovate to oblong lanceolate,
6 to 15 cm long, toothed at the margins, pointed at the tip and rounded
or somewhat pointed at the base. The flowers are borne on large cymes,
up to 50 cm in diameter, five-parted and about 3 mm long, a few opening
at a time, the stalks and calyx are red, the petals, pale yellow. Fruit
is dark red, depressed-globose and about 8 mm in diamter.
Distribution
In thickets and secondary
forests at low and medium altitudes.
Parts used
Roots, branches, leaves.
Uses
Folkloric
Decoction of roots, branches
and leaves used for wound healing.
In Thailand, root used for diarrhea and
hallucination.
In southern Western Ghats, leaf juice of the plant is mixed with coconut milk, given three times daily for treatment of dysentery with blood discharge.
Studies
• Anti-Hypertensive:
In a study of the potential antihypertensive activity of Brazilian plants,
Leea rubra was one of five plants (C brasiliense, C fruticosum, P roebelinii
and T catappa) that showed significant angiotensive-converting enzyme
(ACE) inhibition.
Availability
Seasonal fruiting
and ubiquitoous market produce. |
