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Botany
A coarse and erect plant with a stout
trunik, growing up to 2 meters high. Leaves are very large, broadly
ovate, up to 1.5 meters long, with undulate margins, a pointed apex
and a deeply cordate base. Petiloes are long and stout. Spathes are
peduncled with the tube 4 to 5 cm long. Blade is yellowish to yellowish-green
up to 23 cm long and 9 cm wide, purple-mottled inside. Spadix pistillate
is 3 to 4 cm long, 1.5 cm thick, the male inflorescence about 6 cm long.
Berries are globose or ovoid, fleshy, and red when mature.
Distribution
In clearings and secondary forests
at low and medium altitudes.
Common ornamental cultivation.
Constituents
and properties
Rhizomes contain phytosterols,
alkaloids, glucose and fructose.
Root tuber contains neurotoxin, sapotoxin.
Parts used
Stems, leave, rhizomes.
Uses
Nutritional
Stems and corms are edible; used as food during
scarce times.
Folkloric
• Leaves and
corms used for furuncles, impetigo and snake bites
• Ground petioles in near-decayed state are placed in cloth and
heated in coals, used for toothaches.
• Decoction of rhizomes used for abdominal pains and vomiting.
• Acrid juice used for stings of giant nettles (Laportea).
• In Java, chopped
roots and leaves applied to painful joints.
• In India, rhizomes
are rubefacient; employed as external stimulant and for fevers.
Studies
• Antifungal / Anti-HIV1 Reverse Transcriptase:
Alocasin, an anti-fungal protein was isolated from the rhizome of Alocasia
macrorrhiza. and showed antifungal activity against Botrytis
cineria. Alocasin also reduced the activity of HIV1 reverse transcriptase.
• Neurotoxicity / Sapotoxin:
A case report of poisoning due to the raw root tuber of Chinese medicinal
plant, A macrorrhiza, presenting with severe pain and numbness periorally,
with nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Root tuber is known to contain
the neurotoxin, sapotoxin.
• Anti-Tumor:
In a study of the antitumor effect of water extract of Alocasia macrorrhiza, the inhibitory rate was 29.38% against S180 in mice and 51.72% against transplantable human gastroadenitis in nude mice.
Caution
!
• Stinging Raphides: Stems, corms,
leaves and petioles contain stinging raphides (calcium oxalate crystals)
that are destroyed by boiling and roasting.
• Neurotoxicity:
Case report possiblty caused by tuber root neurotoxin, sapotoxin.
Availability
Wildcrafted.
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