Botany
Tubo is a large, coarse and
erect grass. Stems are solid, polished, green, yellow
or purplish, attaining a height of 1.5 to 4 meters, 2 to 5 centimeters thick, with
long and short internodes. Leaves are very large and broad, with blades 0.9 to 1.25 meters
long and 4 to 5 centimeters wide. Panicles are very large, white, drooping and terminal,
40 to 80 centimeters long; branches up to 35 centimeters long. Spikelets are very numerous,
1-flowered, about 3 millimeters long, with surrounding white villous hairs about
twice as long as the spikelets.
 Distribution
- Cultivated
throughout the Philippines, very extensively in some islands and provinces.
- One of the major crops of the Archipelago.
- Introduced.
Constituents
Sucrose is the product
of the sugar cane juice.
Properties
- Crystals are odorless and sweet.
-
Considered antidote, antiseptic, antivinous, bactericidal, cardiotonic,
demulcent, diuretic, emollient, cooling, laxative, stimulant.
Parts used
Roots, sugar.
Uses
Edibility / Nutritional
- Nutritious.
- Largely used
for preserving
meat and fruit.
Folkloric
- Refined sugar has been used
for fevers, lack of secretion, dry coughs.
- Molasses is used as a laxative.
- Sugar is applied to wounds, ulcers, boils, and inflamed eyes.
- Pulped sugar used to dress wounds; the cane used for splinting broken
bones.
- In Mexico used to relieve coughs.
- Malay women use it in childbirth.
- Decoction of root used for whooping cough.
- In India, plant juices used for abdominal
tumors.
- In Cote-d'-Ivoire, leaf decoction used for hypertension.
Others
Refined
Studies
•
Immunostimulating Effect: The
phagocytic activity of peripheral blood leucocytes in chickens increased
significantly when orally administered sugar cane extracts, with higher
antibody responses and delayed type hypersensitivity responses.
•
Prokinetic Effect: S officinarum was one of seven
known herbs in a polyherbal formulation. Study showed increased gastric
emptying and suggests a potential for use as a gastrointestinal prokinetic
to improve gastrointestinal motility.
•
Hypoglycemic Effect: Study reports the hypoglycemic
effect of juice from sugar cane stalks. The isolated constituent, saccharin,
provided a transient reduction of blood glucose. The transient hypoglycemic
effect of complex polysaccharides is suggested to be possibly from increased
glucose utilization in the liver and peripheral tissues.
• Phytochemicals / Antioxidant: Study of sugarcane leaves yielded luteolin-8-C (rhamnosylglucoside), with radical scavenging activity. The juice yielded flavones diosmetin-8-C-glucoside, vitrexin, schaftoside, isoschaftoside and 4',5'-dimethyl-luteolin-8-C glucoside. Its content of flavonoids suggest a potential for sugarcane as a dietary source of natural antioxidants.
• Steroidogenesis / Testosterone Effect: Study investigated the effect of sugar cane (S. officinarum) molasses on steroidogenesis in testis cell culture. Results showed low concentrations of molasses increase testosterone secretion. Study suggests molasses may be a potential diet supplement to increase testosterone levels.
• Optimization of Cytochrome C Production: Comparative study of Manihot Esculenta and Saccharum officinarum showed S. officinarum to be a better optimizer for cytochrome C production. Sugarcane had the higher rate of carbohydrate yield compared to Cassava in terms of inoculum volume with a difference of 5.57%.
Toxicity concerns
!
Sugarcane contains
hydrocyanic. Sugar cane is a known teratogen. Molasses in excess amounts,
alone or mixed with feeds, may cause diarrhea, colic, urticaria, kidney
irritation, sweating and paralysis in domestic stock; horses seem more
susceptible, and toxicity could prove fatal.
Availability
Cultivated.
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