Blumea lanceolaria (PROSEA)

File:Logo PROSEA.png

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

List of species

Blumea lanceolaria (Roxb.) Druce

Protologue: Rep. Bot. Exch. Club Brit. Isles 4: 609 (1917).

Synonyms

Blumea myriocephala DC. (1836),
Blumea laxiflora Elmer (1906),
Blumea conspicua Hayata (1911).

Vernacular names

Malaysia: chapa, kepijit (Peninsular)
Vietnam: rau ãn gõi, xương sông.

Distribution

From Sri Lanka, India and Bangladesh to Indo-China, China, the Ryukyu Islands, Taiwan, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java and the Philippines.

Uses

The leaves are sudorific and used against bronchitis, aphthae and asthma. They have also been applied externally as a poultice to treat rheumatism. B. lanceolaria is sometimes cultivated for culinary purposes as a seasoning.

Observations

A herb or small shrub up to 2 m tall, stems erect, generally unbranched, glabrous though puberulous above.
Leaves simple, generally elliptical-oblanceolate, 6-35 cm × 1-9 cm, long-tapering at base, margin minutely to coarsely serrate-dentate, rugose and lustrous above, glabrous or puberulous below, sessile.
Capitula in terminal panicles, 6-11 mm in diameter, almost sessile and clustered on up to 2 cm long peduncles, involucre 8-9 mm long, 4-5-seriate, outer involucral bracts ovate-lanceolate, inner ones narrowly lanceolate, all pubescent on the back.
Flowers 5-6 mm long.
Achene ribbed, pubescent, pappus up to 5 mm long, yellowish-white to pale red.

B. lanceolaria is highly variable and occurs in humid shaded places, along stream banks, up to 1500 m altitude.

Selected sources

Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A-H) pp. 1-1240. Vol. 2 (I- Z) pp. 1241-2444.
Dutta, S.C., Saha, B.N., Pathak, M.G. & Mathur, R.K., 1989. Essential oil of Blumea lanceolaria (Roxb.) Druce. Indian Perfumer 33(1): 38-39.
Li, H. L., 1978. Compositae. In: Li, H. L., Liu, T, S., Huang, T. C., Koyama, T. & DeVol, C.E. (Editors): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 4. Epoch Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. pp. 768-965.
Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
Nguyen Xuan Dung, Do Tat Loi, Do Tat Hung & Leclercq, P.A., 1991. Chemical composition of the oil of Blumea lanceolaria (Roxb.) Druce from Vietnam. Journal of Essential Oil Research 3(4): 285-286.
Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 pp.
Pételot, A., 1952-1954. Les plantes médicinales du Cambodge, du Laos et du Vietnam [The medicinal plants of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam]. 4 volumes. Centre National de Recherches Scientifiques et Techniques, Saigon, Vietnam.
Randeria, A.J., 1960. The composite genus Blumea, a taxonomic revision. Blumea 10: 176-317.
Srivastava, R.C., 1987. Rare and less known plants of Madhya Pradesh - II. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 11: 91-94.
Srivastava, R.C. & Shukla, B.K., 1984. The genus Blumea DC. (Asteraceae) in Madhya Pradesh. Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany 5: 285-291.

Main genus page

Blumea (Medicinal plants)

Authors

D.S. Alonzo