Peristrophe bivalvis (PROSEA)
Introduction |
Peristrophe bivalvis (L.) Merr.
- Protologue: Interpr. Rumph. Herb. Amboin.: 476 (1917).
- Family: Acanthaceae
- Chromosome number: 2n= unknown
Synonyms
- Peristrophe tinctoria (Roxb.) Nees (1832),
- Peristrophe roxburghiana (Schultes) Bremek. (1955).
Vernacular names
- Indonesia: noja (Javanese)
- Malaysia: noja
- Philippines: deora (Bisaya), kaladuda (Lanao), taoda (Manobo)
- Vietnam: kim long nhuôm.
Origin and geographic distribution
P. bivalvis is distributed from eastern India and Sri Lanka to central China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Java. It is (or was) cultivated in India (Bengal and Assam), the southern Philippines, and, rarely, in Java. Often the plant is semicultivated, as a relic of former cultivation.
Uses
The twigs and leaves give a purplish or orange-red dye, used in Indonesia to colour cotton and mattings in a mixture with other dye plants, such as the leaves of Hemigraphis sp. and Symplocos sp. and root-bark of Morinda citrifolia L., or in a mixture with leaves of Melastoma sp. and bark of Ceriops sp., practised in Malaysia. In India the twigs serve to dye matting, sometimes also in mixtures. In traditional medicine, a poultice made from pounded leaves is reported to relieve skin complaints.
Properties
The identity of the dyeing matter of P. bivalvis is still unknown.
Botany
- An erect, often much-branched herb up to 1 m tall, rarely up to 1.5 m. Stems subquadrangular, usually swollen above the nodes, pubescent, especially apically, or nearly glabrous.
- Leaves opposite, membranaceous, ovate to lanceolate or oblong, 7-16 cm × 2.5-7.5 cm, cuneate to rounded at base, acuminate at apex, margins entire or shallowly undulate, glabrous above, sparingly pubescent beneath; petiole 0.5-3(-4) cm long.
- Flowers in terminal cymes, which are composed of 1-4 involucres, each involucre with 2-6 flowers and 2 large, unequal bracts; calyx 3-7 mm long, pilose with ordinary and glandular hairs; corolla 3.5-5 cm long, with long, tortuous tube and bilabiate, resupinate limb, pubescent outside, reddish-violet, sometimes pale; stamens 2, inserted near the top of the corolla tube, long-exserted, filaments retrorsely hirsute; style filiform, 2-lobed.
- Fruit a clavate to ellipsoid capsule, 1.5-2 cm long, pubescent, 2-valved with 2 orbicular, flat and slightly tuberculate seeds per valve.
Peristrophe montana Nees is reported to be used in the same way as P. bivalvis. Certain other members of Acanthaceae that yield a dye, such as Hypoestes rosea Decne. and Strobilanthes crispus (L.) Blume, are sometimes mistaken for P. bivalvis.
Ecology
P. bivalvis is often found on cultivated lands, in thickets and coconut groves, often probably a relic of cultivation. Under supposed natural conditions it grows along watercourses in forests. In the Philippines it is cultivated up to 1600 m altitude.
Agronomy
Plants can be propagated by cuttings and seeds. Usually cuttings are preferred because growth is quicker. Cuttings taken at any time from tender shoots will root in 3 or 4 weeks in a suitable nursery bed. Plants grow fast, and mostly after about 4 months the twigs can be lopped. Fresh or dried twigs can be used for dyeing. They are cut into small chips, pounded, and boiled in water. The material to be dyed can then be dipped in the solution. Material for matting is boiled in the solution for some hours, or left for some days in the cooled solution, then removed and dried. Textile is dipped in the cooled solution (with or without mordant), and dried in the shade, and this treatment is repeated several times. In Java the textile or yarn is first steeped in the solution for some days and afterwards boiled and dried. The dyeing solution may also contain parts of other dye plants. Without the addition of other plants, matting material acquires a red colour and textile a dull red colour.
Literature
- Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1965. Flora of Java. Vol. 2. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. p. 581.
- Chang-Fu Hsieh & Tseng-Chieng Huang, 1978. Acanthaceae. In: Hui-lin Li (Editor): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 4. Taipei, Taiwan. p. 656, pl. 1144.
- Crevost, Ch. & Pételot, A., 1941. Catalogue des produits de l'Indochine. Tome 6. Tannins et tinctoriaux. Gouvernement général de l'Indochine, Hanoi. p. 66.
- Sastri, B.N. (Editor), 1966. The wealth of India. Raw materials. Vol. 7. Publications & Information Directorate, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi. p. 314.
Authors
L.E. Groen