Botany
Balaniog is a somewhat hairy shrub, 1 to 3 meters high. Leaves are alternate, compound-pinnate, about 30 centimeters or more in length. Leaflets are 5 to 11, 4 to 10 centimeters in length, 2 to 4 centimeters wide, pointed at the apex and rounded or pointed at the base, with prominently toothed margins. Flowers are small, reddish, occurring in axillary inflorescences. Fruit is oval, black when ripe, smooth, reticulated, about 0.5 centimeter long. Seeds are dark brown, compressed and rugose.
Distribution
- In thickets at low altitudes in Pangasinan Province in Luzon; in Leyte; Palawan: Negros; and Surigao, Bukidnon, Cotobato, Misamis Provinces in Mindanao, and in Basilan.
- Also reported in India to southern China through Malaya to Australia.
Constituents
- Studies yielded tannin 1.5%, and a small amount of hydrolytic enzymes.
- Bark yielded an amorphous bitter principle, volatile acids and protein.
- Phytochemical screening yielded flavonoids, tannins, triterpenes, steroids, anthraquinones, anthrones, flavonoids glycosides, coumarins.
- Contains quassinoid triterpenes, including bruceatin, bruceantinol, bruceantinoside a, bruceins A-G and Q, bruceolide, bruceosides, dihydrobrucein A.
Properties
- Seeds are may be toxic in single full doses, especially the powdered form, and can produce nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and purging.
- No toxic signs or symptoms were observed when the seeds were administered in divided doses.
- Toxic components are no in oil of the seed, but in the bitter portion of the nonoleated fraction of the seed.
- On examination of a small amount of stool with living dysentery amoeba mixed with 2% cold infusion of powdered seed (free oil), the amoeba became round and died instantly.
- Expressed oil has no amebicidal action although the ethereal extract has.
Parts used
Seed, fruit.
Uses
Folkloric
- Fresh fruit used for stomachache.
- In the East Indies, all parts of the plant are used as stomachic tonic; also used for diarrhea, intermittent fever and worms.
- Seed has been reportedly used as remedy for most types of pernicious dysentery.
- Seeds used for malaria, with effects comparable to quinine.
- In China, used to treat malaria, amebic dysentery, chronic dysetnery, hemorrhoids; also, used as insecticide. Seeds used for dysentery, malaria and cancer.
- In Indonesia, fruit used for fever and as anti-malarial.
- Elsewhere, poultice used on boils, ringworn, scurf, centipede bites, hemorrhoids, enlarged spleens. Seed and seed oil used on warts and corns.
- Seeds used for diabetes.
Studies
• Indole Alkaloid / Cytotoxicity: (1) Study has yielded an indole alkaloid canthin-6-one. The compound and its hydroxylated and methoxylated derivatives have demonstrated marked cytotoxic activities against malaria, leukemia, carcinoma, keratinocytes of guinea-pig ear, and bacteria (Anderson et al, 1983.)
• Antioxidant: In a study of the crude methanol extracts of four Philippine medicinal plants for their antioxidant activity, B amarissima showed to be the most potent. Phytochemical screening yielded flavonoids, tannins, triterpenes, steroids, anthraquinones, anthrones, flavanoid glycosides and coumarins.
• Quassinoid: Study isolated javanacin, a novel quassinoid from the seeds of B. javanica.
• Hypoglycemic / Bruceines: Study of B. javanica seeds isolated bruceines E and D which were administered to STZ-induced diabetic rats. Results showed reduction of blood glucose concentration by both bruceines comparable to glibenclamide probably by acting as an insulin secretagogue.
• Anti-Malarial: Study showed of extracts of B. javanica fruit showed anti-malarial activity that was attributed to its quassinoid constituents. Nine of the quassinoids showed activity against chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium falciparum.
• Bioactive Seed Constituents: Study Study isolated a new quassinoid, yadanziolide S, from the seeds of B. javanica, along with 10 known compounds, flazin, bruceine D, yadanziolide B, bruceoside A, yadanziolide S, yadanzigan, glycerol 1,3-bisoleate, azelaic acid, (±)-8-hydroxyhexadecanoic acid, and vanillin. The isolates were evaluated for potential to induce human promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cell differentiation and to inhibit COX-1, COX-2, and DMBA-induced lesions in a mouse mammary culture model.
• NF-kB Inhibitors: Study identified nuclear factor kappaB (NF-xB) inhibitors exhibiting reactive oxygen species (ROS) intracellular amplification. Bruceajavanone B, bruceantin, bruceine A, (-)-hydnocarpin, and chrysoeriol exhibited cytotoxic potential and NF-kB p65 inhibition. Chrysoeriol exhibited selective cytotoxicity against leukemia cells and potentiates the amplification of ROS levels, and can serve as a potential chemotherapeutic modifier for leukemia chemotherapy.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
Extracts in the cybermarket.
|
