Smilax china (PROSEA)

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Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

File:Smilax china MC.tif

1, rhizome; 2, part of flowering stem; 3, male flower (Iskak Syamsudin)

Smilax china L.

Protologue: Sp. pl. 2: 1029 (1753).

Vernacular names

• China root, Chinese sarsaparilla (En).
• Racine de Chine, squine (Fr)
• Indonesia: gadung cina (general), peundang (Aceh), ghadhung tambha (Madurese)
• Malaysia: gadong china, gadong saberang, akar restong
• Philippines: sarsaparillang-china (Tagalog), buanal (Igorot), palipit (Bontok)
• Vietnam: kim chang trung quốe.

Distribution

From Japan and southern China, through the Ryukyu Islands to Laos, Vietnam, northern Thailand, Burma (Myanmar) and the Philippines. S. china has long been cultivated in China and Japan as a medicinal plant. The rhizomes are imported in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Uses

Rhizomes had a long-standing reputation as a remedy for syphilis, complaints of the genito-urinary system, rheumatism and skin diseases. S. china is used in anticancer drugs in Chinese medicine. In Malaysia, the imported rhizomes are used against syphilis and gonorrhoea, as a tonic and after childbirth; in Indonesia against syphilis and framboesia; in the Philippines against herpes, syphilis, chronic rheumatism, skin diseases and asthma.

Observations

• A climber up to 5 m long with smooth or sparingly prickly stem and branches.
• Leaves ovate-orbicular, broadly elliptical to ovate-elliptical or narrowly elliptical, up to 12 cm long, petiole up to 1.5 cm long, wings of petiolar sheaths rather weakly developed, tendrils up to 15 cm long.
• Umbels solitary.
• Fruit 10-12 mm in diameter, red at maturity.
• Seeds red-purple.

In China, two types can be distinguished, one with big berries and the other with small berries; these types can be distinguished by pyrolysis-high resolution gas chromatography. In tropical Asia S. china occurs only in scrub vegetation and open forest in mountains above 1000 m altitude, but in more temperate regions it also grows in the lowland; in the Philippines it is found in moss forest at 1600-2400 m altitude.

Selected sources

• [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.
• [202] 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.
• [549] Hänsel, R. et al. (Editors), 1992. Hagers Handbuch der Pharmazeutishe Praxis [Hagers handbook of the practice of pharmacology]. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1209 pp.
• [580] Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
• [735] Kim, S.W., Son, K.H. & Chung, K.C., 1989. Mutagenic effect of steroidal saponins from Smilax china rhizomes. Journal of the Pharmaceutical Society of Korea 33(5): 285-289 (in Korean).
• [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.
• [832] Lee, H. & Lin, J.Y., 1988. Antimutagenic activity of extracts from anticancer drugs in Chinese medicine. Mutation Research 204(2): 229-234.
• [1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
• [1288] Sashida, Y., Kubo, S., Mimaki, Y., Nikaido, T. & Ohmoto, T., 1992. Steroidal saponins from Smilax riparia and S. china. Phytochemistry 31(7): 2439-2443.
• [1570] Wijayakusuma, H.M.H., Dalimartha, S. & Wirian, S.W., 1994. Tanaman berkhasiat obat di Indonesia [Plants yielding medicine in Indonesia]. Vol. 3. Pustaka Kartini, Jakarta, Indonesia. 143 pp.

Main genus page

• Smilax (Medicinal plants)

Authors

• Stephen P. Teo