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Family Verbenaceae
Huniyan
Premna herbacea Roxb.
STEMLESS PREMNA
Qian jie cao

Scientific names Common names
Gumira herbacea (Roxb.) Kuntze Huniyan (Buk.)
Premna acaulis (F.Muell.) Merr.. Stemless premna (Engl.)
Premna herbacea Roxb.  
Premna humilis Merr.  
Premna nana Collett & Hensl.  
Premna obovata Merr.  
Premna sessilifolia H.J.Lam.  
Pygmaeopremna acaulis (F.Muell.) Moldenke  
Pygmaeopremna herbacea (Roxb.) Moldenke  
Pygmaeopremna humilis Merr.  
Pygmaeopremna nana (Collett & Hemsl.) Moldenke  
Pygmaeopremna sessilifolia (H.J.Lam.) Moldenke  
Pygmaeopremna subacaulis (F.Muell.) Moldenke  
Tatea acaulis F.Muell.  
Tatea herbacea (Roxb.) Junell  
Tatea humilis (Merr.) Junell  
Premna herbacea Roxb. is an accepted name. The Plant List

Other vernacular names
ASSAMESE: Matia-jam.
BENGALI: Bamanhali.
CHINESE: Qian jie cao.
GARO: Bol-sal-thanuri, Mati-pharuwa.
HINDI: Bharangi.
KANNADA: Nayit-yaga.
MARATHI: Gantubarangi.
PAKISTAN: Jambhol, Jambooka.
SANSKRIT: Boomi-jambuka.
TAMIL: Sirudekku.
TELUGU: Nelaneredu.

Botany
Huniyan is a small, inconspicuous undershrub growing up to 15 centimeters in height, produced from stout, elongated, woody roots, with hardly any stems. Roots are about as thick as a crowquill with numerous, almost-globular, woody knots. Leaves are simple, obovate-oblong or obovate, up to 13 centimeters long, 6.5 centimeters wide, and pointed at both ends, with entire and irregularly toothed margins. Stalks are very short, 2 to 4 millimeters long. Flowers are greenish-white, 4-parted, and borne on short, terminal inflorescences about 1 centimeter long. Fruit is black, broadly obovoid, and 4 to 5 millimeters in diameter.

Distribution
- In open grasslands at low and medium altitudes in Cagayan, Isabela, Bontoc, and Nueva Viscaya Provinces in Luzon, and in Mindanao.
- Also occurs in India, Thailand, and Hainan.

Constituents
- Root contains an orange-brown acid resin (soluble in ether, alcohol and alkaline solutions), traces of an alkaloid, and starch, with an entire absence of astringency.
- Study yielded sirutekkone, a diterpenoid. (2)
- Phytochemical studies show a strong presence of triterpenoids and alkaloids, with traces of carbohydrates and flavonoids. (6)
- Various extracts of roots yielded carbohydrates, triterpenoid, alkaloids, saponins, glycosides, starch, flavanoids. (8)
- An ethyl acetate extract yielded a tetrahydroxy flavone characterized as 5,6,7,4'-tetrahydroxy flavone (scutellarein.) (9)

Properties
-Root is bitter, stomachic.
- Studies have shown analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic, antitumor, antidysenteric properties.


Parts used
Roots, leaves, bark.

Uses

Edibility
- In Assam, reported seasonal use of shoots and young leaves as wild vegetables. (11)
Folkloric
- Various plant parts have been used as laxative, stomachic, antidiabetic, antiasthmatic, antianemic.
- In India, the juice of the root, mixed with juice of ginger and warm water, given for asthma.
- In Assam, leaves and young shoots used for fever, sleeping sickness, and jaundice. (11)
- Bitter root is considered as stomachic; given for rheumatism and dropsy.
- Root bark used for toothache.
- Leaves are used for fever, cough, rheumatism; poultices applied to boils.
- In Ayurveda, alone or as ingredient, used for bronchitis, asthma, hypertension, tumors, inflammation,hiccups, epilepsy and helminthiasis.
- In Thailand, rhizome used for treatment of cancer. In China and tropical Asia, leaves used for headache; leaves and roots used for rheumatic pains, cough, fever and colds; roots used for ulcers, rheumatism and gout; whole plant used for sprains; roots and rhizomes used for dropsy, gout, asthma, fever, rheumatism, and cholera. (14)


Studies
Antipyretic / Antinociceptive / Anti-Inflammatory / Roots:
Study of alcoholic extract of roots of Premna herbacea in animal models showed significant antipyretic activity in rabbits, mild antinociceptive activity in mice, and significant activity in chronic inflammation. (1)
Toxicity Study: Alcoholic extract was found to be safe up to a dose of 8.0 g/kg in mice.
Bharangin / Cytotoxic Properties: Bharangin, a novel diterpenoid quinonemethid, has been isolated from the hexane extract of root nodules. Bharangin exhibited cytotoxic properties against P-338 tumor cell line. (3)
Cytotoxicity / Antitumor / Roots: Study investigated root nodules for in vitro cytotoxicity and was found most effective with the alcohol and ethyl acetate extracts in the brine shrimp lethality assay and trypan blue exclusion assay. In vivo antitumor activity was tested in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma and Dalton lymphoma models. Extracts and fractions showed potent antitumor activity against solid tumor models by significantly reducing the solid tumor weight and volume. (4)
Silver Nanoparticles Biosynthesis / Antidysenteric Antimicrobial: Aqueous silver nanoparticles were synthesized in a single step by a green biosynthetic method from an aqueous extract of Premna herbacea. The nanoparticles showed bactericidal activity against two gram negative bacteria (Shigella dysenteriae and E. coli) with a potential for a more cost effective antibacterial agent causing dysentery causing microbes. (7)
Antimicrobial / Roots: Study of an ethyl acetate fraction of alcoholic extract exhibited best antimicrobial activity compared to other extracts, showing good activity against resistant bacteria (P. aeruginosa) even better than chloramphenicol. (12)
Anticonvulsant / INH and Strychnine-Induced Convulsions / Roots: Study evaluated the anticonvulsant potential of three roots extracts of Premna herbacea on isoniazid and strychnine induced convulsions in mice. In the INH model, the chloroform extract of roots at 200 and 400 mg/kg showed dose dependent delay in onset of convulsion (p<0.05 and p<0.01) along with protection of 33.33% of mice. (13)
Antidiabetic / Antioxidant: Study evaluated the Premna herbacea for in-vitro hypoglycemic activity using alpha amylase and alpha glucosidase inhibition and antioxidant activity using DPPH method for free radical scavenging activity. A methanol extract showed alpha amylase inhibition with IC50 29.71 µg/ml compared to acarbose at 344.83 µg/mL. The ME also exhibited highest inhibition of alpha glucosidase with minimum IC50 382 µg/mL compared to acarbose 397.06 µg/mL. The plant exhibited antioxidant property with IC50 of 4.84 µg/mL compared to ascorbic acid 5.61 µg/mL. An aqueous extract yielded many bioactive secondary metabolites like terpenoid, steroid, phenol, flavonoids, saponin, tannin coumarin and sugar. (15)

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Updated July 2020 / June 2016

                                                   PHOTOS / ILLUSTRATIONS
IMAGE SOURCE: Photograph / Leaves: Premna herbacea / click on image to go to source page / © Earth.com
IOTHER IMAGE SOURCE: Photograph / Flowers: Premna herbacea / click on image to go to source page / © BGO Plant Databases: The Botanical Garden Organization
IMAGE SOURCE: / Illustration / Premna herbacea Roxb. / Indian medicinal plants, vol. 4: t. 738, fig. A / Illustration contributed by the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, U.S.A. / PlantIllustrations.org
OTHER IMAGE SOURCE: Taxon: Premna herbacea / Credit: Fauzia / Flora of Pakistan

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Antipyretic, antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activity of Premna herbacea roots / N Narayanan, P Thirugnanasambantham et al /
Fitoterapia, 1 April 2000; Volume 71, Issue 2: pp 147-153 /
doi:10.1016/S0367-326X(99)00132-X
(2)
Structure of sirutekkone, a diterpenoid from Premna herbacea / Gopalan Sandhya et al / Phytochemistry
Volume 27, Issue 7, 1988, Pages 2249-2250 / doi:10.1016/0031-9422(88)80135-3
(3)
A NOVEL RP-HPLC METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF BHARANGIN IN GHANTU BHARANGI CRUDE EXTRACTS / Thadikamala Sathish, Pendyala Brahmaiah, Kancherla Sathya et al /
(4)
Preliminary evaluation of in vitro cytotoxicity and in vivo antitumor activity of Premna herbacea Roxb. in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma model and Dalton's lymphoma ascites model / Dhamija I, Kumar N, Manjula SN, Parihar V, Setty MM, Pai KS / Exp Toxicol Pathol. 2011 Sep 15; 65(3): pp235-242 /. DOI: 10.1016/j.etp.2011.08.009 PMID: 21920724 
(5)
Premna herbacea Roxb. / Synonyms / The Plant List
(6)
EVALUATION OF PHYSIOCHEMICAL , PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF PREMNA HERBACEA / D. THIRUMALAI, M. PARIDHAVI AND M. GOWTHAM* / Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research Vol 6, Suppl 1, 2013
(7)
BIOSYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES USING PREMNA HERBACEA LEAF EXTRACT AND EVALUATION OF ITS ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY AGAINST BACTERIA CAUSING DYSENTER
Y / SANTOSH KUMAR*, RAISA MAINAO DAIMARY, MWKTHANG SWARGIARY, ANJALI BRAHMA , SUDHESH KUMAR AND MUKESH SINGH / Int J Pharm Bio Sci 2013 Oct; 4(4): pp 378 - 384
(8)
EVALUATION OF PHYSIOCHEMICAL , PHARMACOGNOSTICAL AND PHYTOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS OF PREMNA HERBACEA . / D. THIRUMALAI, M. PARIDHAVI AND M. GOWTHAM* / Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research Vol 6, Suppl 1, 2013
(9)
Isolation of Scutellarein from Pygmaeopremna Herbacea Roxb / Vinay Kumar Verma, N. U. Siddiqui and Mohd. Aslam / Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 2012; 02(06): pp 241-242
(10)
Premna herbacea / Common names / Indian Biodiversity Portal
(11)
Study of forest base ethno wild vegetables and ethno medicinal plants among the forest fringe villages of Greater Manas Landscape, Assam / Nijwm Basumatary, Edwin Narazry, Tazim Brahma, Kokil Medhi, Miniswrang Borgoyary, Paris Basumatary, Sanjib Brahma, Sanatan Deka / International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, Volume 5, Issue 4, April 2015
(12)
Exploration of antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of methanolic extract of root stock of Premna herbacea / Isha Dhamija, Nitesh Kumar, K.S.R. Pai, M. Manjunath Setty, Sandeep Kumar3 and Asim K. Jana / Bangladesh J Pharmacol 2014; 9: 663-64
(13)
Evaluation of anticonvulsant activity of premna herbacea (Roxb.) root extracts in isoniazid and strychnine-induced convulsions / Chimbalker Ad, Vyawahare Ns / Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research, 2018; 11(12) / DOI: 10.22159/ajpcr.2018.v11i12.28174
(14)
Ethnomedicinal uses, phytochemistry and pharmacological aspects of the genus Premna: a review / Roza Dianita & Ibrahim Jantan / Pharmaceutical Biology, 2017; 55(1):pp 1715-1739 / https://doi.org/10.1080/13880209.2017.1323225
(15)
IN-VITRO ANTI-OXIDANT AND ANTIDIABETIC EVALUATION OF PREMNA HERBACEA ROXB / Rantumoni Sharma, Jayashree Dutta and M C Kalita / DOI: 10.4066/biomedicalresearch-C4-010

                                                                          DOI
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                                                            List of Understudied Philippine Medicinal Plants

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