Botany
Ambal is a half-erect or climbing shrub growing to a height of one meter or more. Leaves are rather leathery, shining, elliptic-ovate to oblong-elliptic, 13 to 30 centimeters long, with a pointed tip. Flowers are crowded, small and yellowish. Fruit is ellipsoid-globose, 10 to 15 millimeters long.

Distribution
Endemic in thickets and forests at low and medium altitudes in Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Quezon, Laguna, Batangas, and Sorsogon Provinces in Luzon; and in Alabat; Samar, Leyte; Negros; and Mindanao.

Constituents and properties
- Yields six alkaloids: Pycnarrhine, ambaline and ambalininine are non-phenolic; pycnaminde, pycnarrhinine, and pycnarrhenamine are phenolic.

Properties
- Root is tonic, cicatrizant, vulnerary, febrifuge and emmenagogue.

Parts used and preparation
Roots and stems.

Uses
Folkloric
Skin ulcers: apply warm infusion on affected parts.
Powdered roots used to treat cholera and other intestinal diseases.
Root preparations taken internally as a tonic.
Infusion used by pregnant women in parturition.
For wound healing: used as cicatrizant and vulnerary.
Used for fever and to stimulate menstruation.
Used for snakebites and wounds; also, as tonic.

Availability
Wild-crafted.