Botany
Kupit-kupit is a slender, prostate, creeping, smooth or somewhat hairy herb. Stems roots at the nodes, and are 10 to 80 centimeters in length. Leaves are small, kidney-shaped to somewhat heart-shaped, 6 to 15 millimeters long, often wider than long, and irregularly toothed. Flowers, one to three, occur in short stalks in the axils of leaves. Sepals are rounded, about 4 millimeters long, with few to many white, weak hairs. Corolla is yellow, nearly twice as long as the calyx. Capsule is rounded and about 5 millimeters in diameter.
Distribution
- In dry, open grasslands and waste places at low altitudes in Rizal and Bataan Provinces in Luzon.
- Also occurs in tropical Africa, Asia, and Malaya.
Constituents
- Phytochemical screening yielded tannins, flavonoids, amino acids, starch, glycosides, and carbohydrates.
- Seeds yield p-coumaric acid, ferulic, caffeic, sinapic acid esters, and tropane alkaloids.
Properties
- Considered deobstruent, diuretic, alterative.
Parts used
Leaves, tops.
Uses
Edibility
- In India, leaves eaten as greens. Young leaves are fried with groundnut oil and other spices and used with bread, called "Roti" made from Sorghum flour. Leaves are also used in soups.
Folkloric
- In the Philippines, decoction of leaves and tops used as diuretic.
- Leaves used as alterative; used in rheumatism and neuralgia.
- Also used for coughs and headache.
- Used for inflammation, epilepsy.
- Juice used as purgative.
- In India, leaf juice given for migraine; also used as ear drops to relieve abscesses and ulcers. Root is used to treat diseases of the eyes and gums.
- In Indo-China, leaves used as purgative.
- In Indonesia, infusion of leaves mixed with lumps of sugar used as remedy for cough.
Studies
• Antioxidant / a-Amylase Inhibition / Cytotoxicity: In a study of several extracts, the methanol showed better antioxidant activity in the DPPH radical scavenging method. The methanol and hexane extracts exhibited a-amylase inhibitory activity. An ethyl acetate extract showed cytotoxicity in brine shrimp lethality.
• Antipyretic: Study of an ethanolic extract of the plant showed significant antipyretic activity comparable to the standard drug paracetamol.
• Antibacterial: Study investigating the antibacterial activity of various leaf extracts showed the methanol extract to be more effective against Bacillus cereus and E. coli and the aqueous extract was more effective against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa.
• Anti-Arthritis: Study investigating the anti-arthritic activity of M. emarginata extract using Freund's complete adjuvant in rats showed significant inhibitory effect on FCA induced paw edema.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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