 Botany
Payañgit is a twining, half-woody plant with very slender, smooth branches. Leaves are opposite, ovate to broadly ovate or somewhat rounded, 9 to 16 centimeters long, 5 to 10 centimeters wide, with pointed tip and heart-shaped base. Flowers are small, fragrant, yellowish green, borne in alternating clusters at the axils of the leaves, and 4 to 7 centimeters long. The fruit or follicle is lanceolate and somewhat angular, 5 to 8 centimeters long, and densely covered with hairs. Seeds are compressed and provided with profuse, silky-white hairs.
Distribution
- In secondary and primary forests at low and medium altitudes in Ilocos Norte, Abra, Bontoc, Benguet, Nueva Viscaya, Rizal, Laguna, Quezon, and Sorsogon Provinces in Luzon; and in Mindoro, Leyte, Panay, Mindanao, and Basilan.
- Also occurs in India to southern China and Malaya.
Constituents
- Stems yielded pregnane glycosides.
- Plant yields an indigo dye, for which it is sometimes grown.
Properties
- Its dye, like true indigo, is regarded as a good black dye for the hair.
- Considered stomachic.
Parts used
Leaves
Uses
Folkloric
- Leaves sometimes used internally for stomach aches and vaguely diagnosed intestinal afflictions.
- The Sikkim healers of the Himalayas prescribed the leaf juice three times daily for stomachaches.
- In Bangladesh, used by the Shautals to induce abortion.
Others
Dye: (1) In Burma, green is produced by dipping threads that have been dyed yellow in a boiling decoction of the leaves and twigs of the creeping Marsdenia tinctoria. (2) Also considered a good black hair dye.
Studies
• Pregnane Glycosides: Study yielded three new pregnane glycosides, tinctorosides A-C, together with one known pregnane glycoside, stephanoside B, from the stems of M tinctoria.
• Tinctoramine / Tinctoralactone / Antifertility Principles: Phytochemical screening yielded tinctoramine, a new steroidal alkaloid and tinctoralactone, a novel steroid. Both showed oxytocic, anti-implantation and abortifacient activities in mice and rats.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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