Botany
Anuang is a more or less glabrous plant, arising from creeping rootstocks. Stems are usually solitary, 10 to 40 cm high. Leaves are up to 15 cm in length or longer, 3 to 4 mm wide; with the bracts similar. Spikes are ovoid, simple, white, 8 to 13 cm long. Spikelets are very numerous, 3 to 3.5 mm long, the flowering glume distinctly winged along the keel. Nut is up to 1.5 mm long.
Distribution
In waste places, open grasslands, etc., at low and medium altitudes throughout the Philippines.
Pantropic.
Properties
Oil distilled from the roots is dark yellowish-green, with a pleasant odor and pungent taste.
Considered diuretic, sudorific, refrigerant, demulcent and tonic.
Parts used
Oil, roots, rhizome.
Uses
Folkloric
Decoction of fresh roots used as sudorific in malaria with chills.
Decoction of rhizome used as diuretic; mixed with oi, used externally for various forms of dermatoses.
Decoction of root used as refrigerant, demulcent and tonic; used to relieve thirst in diabetes.
Oil distilled from the root used to relieve itching.
Oil used internally for torpor of the liver.
Shares other properties and uses like Cyperus rotundus.
Studies
• Analgesic / Hypoglycemic: Methanol extract study in mice showed K. monocephala to lower blood glucose level when admiistered 15 min after a glucose load. The extract also exhibited analgesic activity, significantly reducing the number of writhes in mice administered intraperitoneally with acetic acid to induce abdominal constriction.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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