 Botany
The plant is a large, evergreen tree growing to a height of 20 meters or more, with a dome-shaped crown. Trunk is often buttressed; the bark, thick and grey. Leaves are glossy, smooth or hairy benetah, elliptic, 10 to 20 cm long, with entire or toothed margins, pointed tip and rounded or heart-shaped base. Flowers are monoecious. Male flowers are crowded, less often on the surface of the pendunculate than on fascicled receptacles. Female flowers are solitary, enclosed in a pear-shaped involucre of numerous confluent bracts, and without a perianth. Fruit is a small fig, purple scarlet or crimson, pyriform, velvety, fleshy and about 20 mm in diameter.
Distribution
Found in Batanes Islands, Cagayan, and Apayao provinces in Luzon; in Mindoro, Negros, and Guimaras.
In forests, at low and medium altitudes.
Constituents
• Juice contains antiarol, potassium nitrate, a crystalline resin called antiarresin, a crystalline protein, three active glucosides said to possess strong digitalis-like effect on the heart.
• Bark has a high concentration of tannin used in dyeing and paints.
Properties
• Sap is dark brown with a gummy consistency, bitter and biting in taste.
• Leaves and bark considered febrifuge.
• Leaf or bark juice considered poisonous.
Parts
utilized
Bark, leaves.
Uses
Edibility
• Fruit is edible.
Folkloric
• Leaves and bark are used as febrifuge.
• In Concan and in Canara, bitter seeds used as febrifuge and as remedy for dysentery.
• In Java, leaves and roots used to treat mental illness.
• In Africa and some Asian nations, seeds, leaves and bark are used as astringent and seeds as antidysenteric.
Others
• Arrow poison: (1) The juice from the leaves or bark is poisonous, and in Java, Malaya and Burma is used as an arrow poison. The Mangyans of Mindoro, the Apayaos and Negritos dip their hunting darts into the bark sap. The Negritos of Cagayan make the poison more effective by mixing the juice with putrid meat. (2) An 1878 Regnault experiment on the A. toxicaria juice concludes it was a powerful heart poison; subsequent pharmacological studies corroborate his conclusion. (3) Used with Strychnos ignatii, Antiaris toxicaria is an important component in the manufacture of dart and arrow poisons; its active components are cardenolides and alkaloids with cardiac toxicity and arresting potentials. (4) The poison must enter the bloodstream to be effective; the latex can be ingested without causing cardiotoxic effects. However, there has been a fatal case of rhabdomyolysis and acute oliguric renal failure following ingestion of blowpipe dart poison prepared from Antiaris and Strychnos.
• Timber: Yields a lightweight hardwood; with good peeling properties for veneer production. Also, a marginal fuel.
• Dye: Bark has tannins and is employed in dyeing and paints.
• Provides a dense canopy for shade and shelter. Leaf litter enriches the soil. Bark used to make rough clothing.
Studies
• Toxicarioside / Cardenolide:
Study isolated a new cardenolide, toxicarioside A, from the methanol extract of a dart poison in Borneo derived from Antiaris toxicaria latex. The bioassay involved the inhibition of NaK-ATPase and mimics the suspected mode of action of the "cardiac-glycoside" toxins.
• Cytotoxicity / Cardenolides:
(1) Study isolated two new cardenolides, toxicarioside F and toxicarioside G from the latex of A toxicaria. Both compounds showed cytotoxicity against K562, SGC-7901, SMMC-7721, and HeLa cell lines. (2) Study isolated a new nor-cardenolide, toxicarioside H from the latex which showed significant cytotoxicity on in vitro testing.
• Cardiotoxicity / Cardenolides:
Active principles in the latex are cardiac glycosides - cardenolides, e.g. alfa-,beta- and gamma-antiarin - with digitalis-like effects on the heart, affecting the Na+K+ATPase activity of the heart muscle membrane. In large amounts, they can cause vomiting, convulsions and cardiac arrest.
• New Sesquiterpenoid Glycoside / Antibacterial / Cytotoxicity:
Study isolated a new drimane sesquiterpenoid glycoside, named 7-drimen-3β,11-diol 3-O-β-d-glucopyranoside. The compound showed inhibitory activities toward methicillin-resistant Staph aureus, chronic myelogenous leukemia and human hepatoma cell lines.
• Endophytic Fungi / Antimicrobial:
Study isolated and identified an endophytic fungi from the phloem in the root of Antiaris toxicaria. Endophytic fungus J6 exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staph aureus).
Availability
Wild-crafted. |
