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Botany
Himbabalod is a smooth tree growing to a height
of 12 meters. Bark is dark brown, rough, 10 to 12 millimeters thick. Leaves are
somewhat crowded at the end of the branches, oblong-obovate, 6 to 14 centimeters long,
pointed at the ends, the young leaves finely toothed at the margins.
Flowers are numerous, axillary and pendulous racemes, 10 to 40 centimeters long.
Fruit is oblong-ovoid, 3 to 4 centimeters long, about 1.5 centimeters thick, bluntly quadrangular, pointed at the ends, and crowed
by persistent calyx lobes.
Distribution
- In thickets and forests, in most islands
and provinces, at low and medium altitudes, from northern Luzon to Mindanao and Palawan, in most islands and provinces.
- Also occurs in India through Malaya through tropical Australia.
Constituents
- Principal constituents are starch, protein, cellulose,
fat, caoutchouc, alkaline sales, and an active principal similar to
saponin which forms into a stable froth when shaken on a watery solution.
- From the bark, a study yielded nine triterpene saponins, acutangulosides
A-F, and acutanguloside D-F methyl esters and a single triterpene aglycone.
(Source)
- Ethanolic study of fruit extracts showed saponins, on hydrolysis
yielded triterpenoid sapogenins, barringtogenol B, C and D and two triterpenoid
acid sapogenins.
Properties
Root is aperient, antipyretic, bitter, cooling, aperient and stimulant.
Bark is stomachic.
Seeds are emetic.
Fruit are bitter, anthelmintic, vulnerary, depurative, emetic.
Parts utilized:
Bark, roots, leaves, fruits.
Uses
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, bark decoction used as stomachic.
- Bark also applied to wounds.
- In Amboina and India, root and bark used for wounds.
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Juice of leaves used for diarrhea.
- In Sindh, fruit is used for coughs, colds, and asthma.
- Seeds are used as aromatic in colic and parturition, also for ophthalmic.
- Kernels are powdered, mixed with butter and sago, for diarrhea.
- In Bombay, kernels are used as emetic.
- Powdered seeds are used as snuff for headache.
- Seeds of the fruit, rubbed with the juice of fresh ginger, for nasal
catarrh and to expel flatus in colic.
- Rubbed with water on the chest to relieve pains and colds, to the abdomen
to relieve colic and flatulence.
- In India, fruits
and leaves in alkaline decoction for abdominal and splenic disorders.
- Seeds rubbed down on stone and applied over sternum for chest colds.
- A few grains mixed with the juice of fresh ginger, taken internally,
induce vomiting or help the expulsion of mucus.
- Fruit incorporated in antiseptic ointment for venereal sores.
- Juice of leaves for mucoid diarrhea.
- Fruit used as anthelmintic and as astringent in gingivitis.
- Decoction of bark used as mouthwash in gum problems.
- In Sri Lanka,
used for malaria.
- German Commission E
monograph recognizes the bark for use in common colds, cough, bronchitis,
fever and diarrhea.
Others
- Poison: In the Philippines, bark is used as fish poison.
Studies
• Antimicrobial: (1) Crude extracts showed good activity
against all test organisms: Gram negative and positive bacteria and
two fungi. It was especially effective against Bacillus subtilis and
Aspergillus niger, comparable to kanamycin and fluconazole. (2) Study
of extracts of five edible plants from northeast Thailand showed the
methanolic extract of Barringtonia acutangula to be the most active,
showing antimicrobial activity against all tested bacteria, including
E coli, Salmonella typhimurium, S aureus, Bacillus cerus and Pseudomonas
aeruginosa.
• Anti-Malarial: In-vivo antimalarial activity
of aqueous root extract of Barringtonia acutangula in mice:
Extract of B. acutangula is non-toxic, and possesses
antimalarial activity justifying indigenous medicinal use in Sri Lanka.
• Antimicrobial: Urinary Tract Pathogens: Study of Barringtonia acutangula showed its ethanol extract exhibited
broader spectrum of inhibition, followed by chlorofom, petroleum ether
and aqueous against urinary pathogens under test.
• Triterpenoids:
(1) Study isolated three new triterpenoid sapogenins balled barringtogenol
B, C and D from the fruits. Two triterpenoid acid sapogenins was also
isolated from the same source, one identified as methyl barringtogenate. (2) Study yielded a triterpenoid glucoside from Barringtonia acutangula - a 2a,3ß,19a-trihydroxy-olean-12-ene-23,28-dioic acid 28-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside.
• Antioxidant / Chemopreventive:
Extracts showed significant activities in all antioxidant assays with the total antioxidant activity increasing in a dose-dependent manner. Results suggest BA may act as a chemopreventive agent, providing antioxidant properties and protection from free radicals.
• Antibacterial / Antifungal:
Phytochemical screening yielded terpenoids, steroids, tannins, saponins flavanoids and glycosides. Results showed Barringtonia acutangula leaves exhibit potential antibacterial and antifungal activity.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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