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Botany:
· Prostrate or climbing shrub; when young, flattened,
creeping and clinging close to adobe walls, woods, etc., and
ascending to erect when old with ultimate branches 30 - 80 cm
long.
· Leaves: more or less two-ranked, on very short petioles,
ovate, 1.5 to 3 cm long with obtuse tip, round or heart-shaped
based and with entire or slightly wavy margins. Leaves on the
erect branches very much larger, oblong, 5 to 10 cm long and
on long petiole.
· Flowers: minute, unisexual, arranged inside a fleshy
receptacle called syconium. Syconium bell-shaped, 2.5 to 4 cm
in diameter. Axillary, pedicel 3 to 5 cm long.
· Fruits: achenes found within the syconium.
Distribution
Grown widely as an ornamental plant or creeper; vigorous on adobe
and concrete walls.
Parts
utilized
· Stem, leaves and fruits.
· Stem and leaves: Collect year round, rinse, cut into
pieces; sun-dry.
· Fruits: Collect May to October; discard inside contents;
sun-dry.
Constituents
and properties
· Fruits are emmenagogue; sperm-invigorating,
and lactation-inducing.
· Stem and leaves are stomachic; invigorates the circulation;
refrigerant and anti-infectious.
· Gum from the plant yields
glucose, fructose and arabinose. Fruit contains protein and latex.
Uses
Folkloric
• Fruits: For bed-wetting, impotency, orchitis.; lack of milk
secretion and irregular menstruation.
• Decoction of fruits (9-24 g), stem and dried leaves (9-15 g)
for rheumatism, arthritis and pains due to sprains.
• Okinawans in Japan
use F. pumila as herbal medicine or beverage to treat diabetes and high
blood pressure.
• In China, leaves
used for painful and swollen piles. Leaves also used for dysentery,
hematuria and locally to carbuncles. Whole plant used for spermatorrhea
and as a galactagogue. Also used for impotence, menstrual disorders,
dysuria, dyschezia, rheumatism, lumbago, boils and impetigo.
Studies
• Antioxidant / Flavonoid Glycosides / Rutin:
Four flavonoid glycosides
were isolated from the leaves of Ficus pumila. Of these, rutin showed the strongest antioxidant activity in DPPH radical scavenging assay and superoxide radical inhibition assay.
• Sesquiterpenoid Glucosides:
Three new sesquiterpenoid glucosides,
pumilasides A, B and C were isolated from the fruit of F pumila.
• Antimicrobial / Antimutagenic Activity / Furanocoumarin Derivatives: Study isolated 2 compounds – bergapten and oxypeucedanin hydrate. Bercapten inhibited the growth of S aureus, E coli, S typhi. Oxypeucedanin inhibited the growth of S typhi. On antimutagenic testing, both reduced the number of micronucleated polychromatic erythrocytes induced by mitocin C, bercapten by 44% and oxypeucedanin hydrate by 74%.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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