Smilax bracteata (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia
Introduction

Protologue: Reliq. haenk. 1: 131 (1827).

Vernacular names

Philippines: banag (general), kamagsa-obat (Tagalog), banagan (Bisaya)
Cambodia: voë pâprohs dâmrèi (Pursat)
Laos: khua:ng khua (Xieng Khouang), khua:ng th'ô:n (Vientiane)
Thailand: khueang thon (Loei)
Vietnam: cậm kệch.

Distribution

From southern Japan, through the Ryukyu Islands and Taiwan to Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Java, Borneo and the Philippines.

Uses

In the Philippines, a decoction of the rhizomes is used as an emmenagogue; it is considered as depurative.

Observations

A climber up to 6 m long with smooth or sparingly prickly, sometimes verruculose stem and branches.
Leaves broadly elliptical to broadly ovate-elliptical or lanceolate, up to 22 cm long, petiole up to 3 cm long, wings of petiolar sheaths weakly developed, tendrils up to 20 cm long.
Inflorescence with (2-)3-7 umbels.
Fruit 5-12 mm in diameter, dirty yellow-brown turning purple-brown or shiny black at maturity.
Seeds dark red.

Two subspecies have been distinguished: subsp. bracteata (synonym: S. stenopetala A. Gray) with usually smooth or nearly smooth stem and branches, and subsp. verruculosa (Merr.) T. Koyama (synonyms: S. odoratissima Blume, S. verruculosa Merr.) with densely verruculose and usually sparingly prickly stem and branches; the latter subspecies occurs in Taiwan, northern Thailand, the Philippines, Java and Borneo. S. bracteata occurs in evergreen or lower montane forest up to 2400 m altitude.

Selected sources

[97] 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.
[190] Brown, W.H., 1951-1957. Useful plants of the Philippines. Reprint of the 1941-1943 edition. 3 volumes. Technical Bulletin 10. Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Bureau of Printing, Manila, the Philippines. Vol. 1 (1951) 590 pp., Vol. 2 (1954) 513 pp., Vol. 3 (1957) 507 pp.
[779] Koyama, T., 1960. Materials toward a monograph of the genus Smilax. Quarterly Journal of the Taiwan Museum 13: 1-62.
[780] Koyama, T., 1975. Smilacaceae. In: Smitinand, T. & Larsen, K. (Editors): Flora of Thailand. Vol. 2. The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand. pp. 211-250.
[781] Koyama, T., 1978. Smilacaceae. In: Li, H.-L., Liu, T,-S., Huang, T.-C., Koyama, T. & DeVol, C.E. (Editors): Flora of Taiwan. Vol. 5. Epoch Publishing Co., Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China. pp. 110-137.
[1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
[1491] Ungson, L.B. & Sastrapradja, S., 1976. Variation in Smilax species of Java. Biotrop Bulletin No 12. SEAMEO Regional Centre for Tropical Biology, Bogor, Indonesia. 24 pp.

Main genus page

Smilax (Medicinal plants)

Authors

Stephen P. Teo