Botany
Baling-uai is a reedlike plant, climbing night on trees through the leaf tendrils. Stem is about 2.5 cm thick towards the base, terete and smooth. Leaves are sessile, 15 to 25 cm long, variable in breadth, 2 to 4 cm or more, lanceolate from a rounded base and terminating in a curled tendril at the apex. Flowers are white, borne in clusters, shortly pedunculated, with irregular laxly branched panicles, 15 to 30 cm long. Outer perianth-segments are broadly ovate or suborbicular, and the inner segments similar, more or less unequal. Fruits are rounded and smooth, red when mature, about 5 mm in diameter.

Distribution
In secondary forests, at low and medium altitudes in all or most islands.
Also occurs in tropical Africa, and in tropical Asia through Malaya to tropical Australia and the Marianne Islands.

Properties
Diuretic, astringent and vulnerary.

Parts used
Stem, rhizome, leaves.
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Uses
Folkloric
Decoction of stems and rhizome used as diuretic.
Leaves are astringent and vulnerary.
Plaster of leaves used on wounds.
Tips of leaves applied to sore eyes.
Young leaves used for making hairwash and to promote hairgrowth.
Decoction of flowers and leaves used as diuretic.
Used for postpartum baths. (See: Suob)
Reported use of leaves for contraception.
In Malaysia, boiled root is taken three times daily as health tonic. The Murut tribe in Sabah boil the whole plant and use the water as a bath for semi-paralytic conditions.
In Malaysian Borneo, decoction of roots taken for influenze, cough and vomiting.
In Vanuatu, to induce infertility, a handful of leaf buds are crushed with water and salt; to drink a glass of the juice before breakfast, to continue for the following four days.
Others
• The "huwag" vine from Flagellaria indica is used in the mananambal's Lenten rituals of producing curative concoctions and brews for sorcery.
• Weaving: Sometimes used for basketry, but of inferior quality to rattan. Also used in making fish traps, nets and rope.

Availability
Wild-crafted.