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Family Malvaceae
Amapola
Hibiscus mutabilis Linn.
CONFEDERATE ROSE
Mu fu rong

Scientifric names  Common names 
HIbiscus mutabilis Linn. Amapola (Tag.)
HIbiscus sinensis Mill. Mapula (Tag.)
Ketmia mutabilis (L.) Moench Changing rose (Engl.)
  Chinese rose (Engl.)
  Confederate rose (Engl.)
  Cotton rose (Engl.)
  Dixie rose-mallow (Engl.)
  Mu fu rong (Chin.)

Etymology
The species name lives up to the epithet, mutabilis meaning changeable or variable. Many of the common names draw upon its colorful mutability - opening up pale pink or white and darkening into shades of red as the day advances. Confederate Rose is a common name that colors the epithet with the drama of the Civil War, a felled soldier bleeding unto a bed of white hibiscus flowers, the petals slowly soaking red.

Botany
Amapola is an erect, branched bushy shrub or small tree, about 2 to 4 meters high, densely covered with short, grayish, stellate hairs. Leaves are broadly ovate to orbicular ovate, 5-lobed or 5-angled, 7 to 20 centimeters long, with pointed tip, heart-shaped base and toothed margins. Calyx is 3 to 4 centimeters long, with 5 oblong-ovate lobes, connate below. Corolla is 10 to 12 centimeters in diameter, single or double, opening pale pink or nearly white, growing darker in color as the day advances.

Distribution
- Occasionally planted for ornamental purposes in the larger towns of the Archipelago.
- Not spontaneous.
- Native of the Old World.
- Now pantropic.

Constituents
- Study isolated five flavonol glycosides from the ethanol extract of petals.
- Study isolated ten compounds: tetracosanoic acid, B-sitosterol, daucosterol, salicylic acid, emodin, rutin, kaemferol-3-O-B-rutinoside, kaemferol-3-O-B-robinobinoside, kaemferol-3-O-B-D-(6-E-p-hy-droxycinnamoyl)-glucopyranoside.

Properties
- Flowers are considered pectoral, emollient and cooling.
- Considered expectorant, cooling, antidotal.

Parts used
Leaves, roots, flowers.

Uses
Folkloric
- In China, flowers and leaves considered expectorant, cooling, analgesic and antidote to all kinds of poison.
- In China medicine, leaves one of the component in a medicine used for treating tuberculous lymphadenitis; the flowers for treating nasopharyngeal carcinoma.
- Decoction of flowers considered pectoral.
- Used for persistent coughs, menorrhagia, dysuria and wounds, especially burns and scalds that are slow to heal.
- Leaves and flowers applied to swellings and skin infections.
- Infusion of flowers used for chest and pulmonary complaints; also used as stimulant.


Studies
Antiproliferative / Anti-HIV1 Reverse Transcriptase / Lectin:
Study isolated a hexameric 150-kDa lectin from dried H mutabilis seeds. The galactonic acid-binding lectin potently inhibited HIV-1 reverse transcriptase. It also exhibited weak antiproliferative activity towards hepatoma HepG2 cells and breast cancer MCF-7 cells.
Nitric Oxide Scavenging Activity: Study of the ethanol extracts of four medicinal plants, including Hibiscus mutabilis, showed dose-dependent NO scavenging activity. Results suggest a potential for the plants as novel therapeutic agents in the regulation of pathologic conditions caused by excessive generation of NO and its oxidation product.
Anti-Tyrosinase Activity: In a study of four species of Hibiscus, H mutabilis was next to H tiliaceus in anti-tyrosinase activity.
Bacteriostasis: In a study of extracts of H. mutabilis, the bacteriostasis effect was highest with E. coli and best with a 70% alcohol extract.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Cultivated.
Flower extracts in the cybermarket.

Last Updated November 2011

IMAGE SOURCE: Public Domain / File:Hibiscus mutabilis Blanco1.175-original.png / Flora de Filipinas / 1880 - 1883 / Francisco Manuel Blanco (O.S.A) / Wikimedia Commons
OTHER IMAGE SOURCE: Hibiscus mutabilis / Dipartimento di Scienze della Vita, Università di Trieste - Progetto Dryades - Picture by Andrea Moro - Città di Lucca, Orto Botanico Comunale., LU, Toscana, Italia / Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share-Alike 3.0 License / Photo Gallery / alterVISTA

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Novel galactonic acid-binding hexameric lectin from Hibiscus mutabilis seeds with antiproliferative and potent HIV-1 reverse transcriptase inhibitory activities / Sze Kwan Lam and Tzi Bun Ng / Acta Biochinica Polonic • Vol. 56 No. 4/2009, 649–654
(2)
In Vitro Nitric Oxide Scavenging Activity of EthanolLeaf Extracts of Four Bangladeshi Medicinal Plants
/ Moni Rani Saha, Rumana Jahangir et al / Stamford Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences • 1 (1&2): 57-62
(3)
Flavonol Glycosides in the Flowers of Hibiscus mutabilis f. versicolor / Nariyuki Ishikura / Agri Biol Chem, 46 (6), 1705-1706, 1982
(4)
Confederate Rose (Hibiscus mutabilis), the Changeable Beauty / Marie Harrison / Dave's Garden
(5)
Studies on chemical constituents of Hibiscus mutabilis / Yao Li-yun, Lu Yang, Chen Ze-nai / Chinese Traditional and Herbal Drugs, 2003-03
(6)
Evaluation of Antioxidant, Anti-tyrosinase and Antibacterial Activities of Selected Hibiscus Species / S K Wong, Y Y Lim and E W C Chan / Ethnobotanical Leaflets 14: 781-96. 2010.
(7)
Sorting Hibiscus names / MULTILINGUAL MULTISCRIPT PLANT NAME DATABASEStudy on bacteriostasis of extracts of Hibiscus mutabili leaf
(8)
Study on bacteriostasis of extracts of Hibiscus mutabili leaf / Li Chang-ling, Liu Sheng-gui et al / Science and Technology of Food Industry, 2009-11

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