 Botany
Alipung is an erect, branched, nearly smooth shrub or small tree, 3 to 8 meters high, usually with a few stout spines on the trunk and branches. Leaves are elliptic, 4 to 8 centimeters long, entire, usually rounded or blunt at the apex and pointed at the base, and smooth beneath. Flowers are borne in short, terminal racemes, each subtended by a large, pale-green bract. The calyx is green, about 5 millimeters long. Corolla is yellow, about 4 centimeters long. Fruit is fleshy, smooth, yellow, pear-shaped, about 2 centimeters long.
Distribution
- Common in thickets and secondary forests at low and medium altitudes in Cagayan, Benguet, Pangasinan, Zambales, Bataan, Pampanga, Bulacan, Rizal, and Laguna Provinces in Luzon; and in Panay.
- Indigenous to India and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines.
Constituents
- Study yielded six new iridoids from aerial parts of G. philippensis viz., 6-O-alpha-L-(2"-O-, 3"-O-, 4"-O-tribenzoyl) rhamnopyranosylcatalpol, 6-O-alpha-L-(2"-O-, 3"-O-dibenzoyl, 4"-O-cis-p-coumaroyl) rhamnopyranosylcatalpol, 6-O-alpha-L-(2"-O-, 3"-O-dibenzoyl, 4"-O-trans-p-coumaroyl) rhamnopyranosylcatalpol, 6-O-alpha-L-(2"-O-benzoyl, 3"-O-trans-p-coumaroyl)rhamnopyranosylcatalpol, 6-O-alpha-L-(2"-O-, 3"-O-dibenzoyl)rhamnopyranosylcatalpol, and gmephiloside, together with five known monoacyl and diacyl rhamnopyranosylcatalpol derivatives. (7)
Properties
- Studies suggest antipyretic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, thrombolytic properties.
Parts
utilized
Fruit, roots.
Uses
Folkloric
• Juice of fruit applied to portions of the feet affected by alipuñga (athlete's foot) and various forms of eczema.
• Fruit of juice is also considered an "anti-limatik" (a species of leech of the genus Haemadipsa).
• Fruit poultice pounded with lime, applied to the throat, for coughs.
• Mixture of the fruit with lime and garlic vigorously applied to the body in cases of dropsy.
• Fruit pounded with lime, applied as poultice to the throat for coughs.
• In India, traditionally used for diabetes. Also, used for dandruff - fruit juice applied every three days in the morning externally on the scalp.
Studies
• Antipyretic:
Study of eight Pakistani medicinal plants showed Gmelina asiatica roots exhibited prominent oral antipyretic activity. (1)
• Antimicrobial:
C. viscosa and G. asiatica were tested for antimicrobial activity. The ethanolic extracts of the roots of G asiatica exhibited a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity, esp against E coli, P vulgaris and P aeruginosa. (2) In a study of five medicinal plants for antimicrobial activity, a crude methanol extract of Gmelina philippensis exhibited 18.0 mm zone of inhibition against Bacillus cereus. (10)
• Antimicrobial: Study showed the aqueous extract to be active against P. pseduoalcaligenes, while the methanol extract could inhibit B subtilis. (3) In a study of antimicrobial activity of five medicinal plants, a crude extract of G. philippensis showed 18.0 mm zone of inhibition against Bacillus cereus. (5)
• Antioxidant / Leaves and Flowers: Study evaluated crude methanol extract and partitionates of leaves and flowers of G. philippensis for antioxidant activity using various assays. Total phenolic content was 1.354 to 10.179 mg BAE/g with DPPH IC50 of 9.75 to 32.25 µg/ml. The variance depended on the solvent used to fractionate the crude extracts. The carbon tetrachloride soluble fraction of leaves extract exhibited the highest amount of phenolic acid. Toxicity on brine shrimp lethality bioassay showed an LC50 of 0.902 to 0.487 µg/ml. (8)
• Thrombolytic: Study evaluated methanol extracts and their pet-ether, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and aqueous soluble partitionates of O. mungos, M. macrophylla, Gmelina philippensis and S. nodiflora for membrane stabilizing and thrombolytic activities. The carbon tetrachloride soluble fraction of G. philippensis showed 49.05% and 21.25% inhibition of hypotonic and heat induced hemolysis of RBC, respectively, with acetyl salycylic acid as reference standard. The carbon tetrachloride soluble fraction of G. philippensis showed thrombolytic activity with clot lysis value of 47.14%, with streptokinase and water as positive and negative controls with 65.00% and 3.84% lysis of clot, respectively. (9)
Availability
Wild-crafted. |
