Zanthoxylum nitidum (PROSEA)
Introduction |
Zanthoxylum nitidum (Roxb.) DC.
- Protologue: Prodr. 1: 727 (1824).
Synonyms
Fagara torva (F. Muell.) Engl. (1896), Zanthoxylum hirtellum Ridley (1920).
Vernacular names
- Prickly ash (En)
- Indonesia: areuy beulit gede (Sundanese), daun seriawan (drug, leaves), kembang seriawan (drug, fruits)
- Malaysia: pokok kuku lang, kayu sekatok (Peninsular)
- Laos: mak khen
- Thailand: kamchat nuai (peninsular), nguu hao (north-eastern)
- Vietnam: hạt sẻn, xuyên tiêu, hoàng lục.
Distribution
From north-eastern India eastward to Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, throughout South-East Asia, to the Solomon Islands and northern Australia.
Uses
In the Philippines, Indo-China and China the pounded bark is used to stupefy fish. In Peninsular Malaysia, the bark is employed for treating toothache by inserting it into a hollow tooth, most likely as a counter-irritant. In Vietnamese folk medicine a decoction of the fruits is used as a stomachic and for toothache. The fruits are further credited as an astringent, anthelmintic, carminative, diaphoretic, stimulant and antipyretic. They are prescribed to treat catarrh, uterine haemorrhage, rheumatism and lumbago. The fruits are taken in decoction or as a powder. The roots are indicated as sudorific, febrifuge and emmenagogue. They are prescribed as a decoction or alcoholic maceration for fevers and rheumatism. In Java, leaves and fruits are merely mentioned as being traded medicinally. In India, the root is used in toothache, stomach-ache and against boils. It is also used as an insecticide and fish poison. The fruit is considered to be an aromatic stimulant and prescribed in stomach-ache. In Taiwan, a decoction of the leafy branches is considered cooling, disinfectant, and bechic; it is gargled for inflammation of the throat. Occasionally cultivated as a hedge plant in China.
Observations
A scandent and generally climbing or occasionally suberect or erect, dioecious or rarely monoecious, evergreen shrub, branchlets, leaf rachises and midribs generally with scattered and retrorse prickles; leaves alternate, imparipinnate, 5-40 cm long, leaflets opposite, (3-)5-9, ovate to elliptical, (1.3-)5-12(-16) cm × (0.7-)2.5-6(-8) cm, with or without pellucid dots, margin entire to glandular crenate; inflorescence axillary or axillary and terminal, racemose to paniculate, up to 15 cm × 7 cm; flowers up to 5 mm long, 4-merous, sepals 4, petals 4, white to pale yellow or rarely reddish; male flowers with 4 stamens, rudimentary carpels 2 or 4; female flowers with ovary 4-carpellate; follicle subglobose, 5-7 mm in diameter, single or up to 4 together. Z. nitidum occurs in rain forest and thickets up to 1100 m altitude in Malesia, in continental Asia up to 1400 m altitude.
Selected sources
74,
- 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.
189,
- Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, 1948-1976. The wealth of India: a dictionary of Indian raw materials & industrial products. 11 volumes. Publications and Information Directorate, New Delhi, India.263, 391, 407, 739, 786, 788.
Authors
Tahan Uji