 Botany
Malatiki is a small deciduous tree, flowering after leafing. Bark is rough, with deep, vertical fissures. Young shoots and young leaves are silky. Leaves are lanceolate, 8 to 15 cm long, with minutely and regularly toothed margins. Male sweet-scented catkins are 5 to 10 cm long, and are borne on leafy branchlets. Female catkins are 8 to 12 cm long. Capsules are long, stipulate, in groups of 3 to 4. Seeds are 4 to 6, in a capsule.
Distribution
- In forests and swamps and near streams at low and medium altitudes.
- Found in Cagayan, Laguna, Rizal, and Bulacan Provinces in Luzaon; in Bohol; and in Mindanao.
- Also occurs in India to China, in Taiwan, and southward to Sumatra and Java.
Constituents
- Phytochemical screenings yield various types of sapogenins: quinovic acid, salicortin, saligenin, phenolic glycosides and pyrocatechol from the bark and leaves.
- Bark yields salicin.
- Plant yields tannins, triterpenes, viz., ß0amyrin, lupeol and chalcinasterol, steroids viz., ß-sitosterol and stigmasterol, with very low concentrations of free salicylaldehyde.
Properties
Bark considered febrifuge and analgesic.
Dried leaves reported to be cardiotonic and neurotonic.
 Parts used
Bark, leaves.
Uses
Edibility
In India, the new flowers are lightly boiled and mixed with mashed potatoes.
Folkloric
- Bark used to treat fever.
- Used in Egyptian folk medicine as antirheumatic sedative and analgesic. Leaves and bark used as remedy for aches and fever.
- Decoction of leaf and root used for whooping cough in children.
- Paste of both leaf and root used externally for scorpion stings, bug bites, sores and warts.
- Decoction of dried root taken internally for treatment of hepatitis.
- Sap of stem taken orally for dysmenorrhea.
- Hot water extract of entire plant instilled in vaginal cavity as abortifacient; rectally to treat local rectal sores.
Others
- Fuel wood.
- Planted along water courses to prevent erosion.
- Used for making cricket bats and light furniture.
Studies
• Anti-Inflammatory: A study of extracts of five plants abundantly growing in Egypt, including Salix tetrasperma, revealed anti-inflammatory activity of the extracts under investigation. Activity was attributed to flavonoids.
• Cardiotonic: Aqueous extract of dried leaf reported to possess cardiotonic activity.
• Reverse Transcriptase Inhibition: Methanol extract of dried leaf exhibit reverse transcriptase inhibition effect.
• Diuretic / Laxative: Study of aqueous extract of Salix tetrasperma in albino rats showed significant diuretic activity as well as laxative activity in a dose-dependent manner.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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