Botany
Softly hairy, half woody, strongly aromatic shrub, 1-4 meters (m) high. Simple, alternate, broadly elongated leaves, 7-20 cm long, with toothed margin and appendaged or divided base. Loose yellow flower head scattered along much-branched leafy panicles. Two types of discoid flowers: peripheral ones tiny, more numerous, with tubular corolla; central flowers few, large with campanulate corolla. Anther cells tailed at base. Fruit (achene) dry, 1-seeded, 10-ribbed, hairy at top.

Properties
Vulnerary, antidiarrhetic, antigastralgic, expectorant, stomachic, antispasmodic, emmenagogue, astringent, anthelmintic.

Distribution
Abundant in open fields, grasslands and waste areas, flowering from February to April. Propagation by cuttings and layering.

Parts utilized
Leaves (fresh or dried).
Mature, healthy, fully expanded leaves are harvested while senescent leaves are discarded. Air-dry until they crumble when crushed with the fingers. Store in amber colored bottles in a cool, dry place.

Constituents
Volatile oil, 0.1 - 0.4% - l-borneol, 25%, l-camphor, 75%, limonene, saponins, sesquiterpene and limonene, tannins, sesquiterpine alcohol; palmitin; myristic acid.

Uses
Folkloric
Leaves as poultice for abscesses.
Decoction of roots and leaves for fevers and cystitis.
Sitz-bath of boiled leaves, 500 gms to a ballon of water, for rheumatic pains of waist and back.
Applied while hot over the sinuses. Used for wounds and cuts.
Fresh juice of leaves to wounds and cuts.
Poultice of leaves to forehead for headaches.
Tea is used for colds and as an expectorant; likewise, has antispasmodic and antidiarrheal benefits.
Postpartum baths.
Decoction of leaves, 50 gms to a pint of boiling water, 4 glasses daily, for stomach pains.
Preparations
Fever: Decoction of roots; boil 2 - 4 handfuls of the leaves. Use the lukewarm decoction as a sponge bath.
Headache: Apply pounded leaves on the forehead and temples. Hold in place with a clean piece of cloth.
Gaseous distention: Boil 2 tsp of the chopped leaves in 1 cup of water for 5 minutes. Drink the decoction while warm. Also used for upset stomach. Also for mothers' bath after childbirth.
Boils: Apply pounded leaves as poultice daily.
As diuretic: Boil 2 tbsp chopped leaves in 2 glasses of water for 15 minutes. Take 1/2 of the decoction after every meal, 3 times a day.

New applications
As a diuretic and for dissolution of renal stones.
As a diuretic in hypertension and fluid retention. Also used for dissolution of kidney stones. Some clinical studies, including double blind/placebo radomized studies, have shown encouraging results for Sambong to be both safe and effective in the treatment of kidney stones and hypertension. The National Kidney and Transplant Institute has promoted the use of this herbal medicine for many renal patients to avert or delay the need for dialysis or organ transplantation.
     Being promoted by the Department of Health (DOH) as a diuretic and for dissolution of renal stones. One of a few herbs recently registered with the Bureau of Foods and Drugs as medicines.
Other benefits
Possible benefits in use patients with elevated cholesterol and as an analgesic for postoperative dental pain.

Availability
Wild-crafted.
Tablets (Re-Leaf by Altermed / Pascual Laboratories)