Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Ethnomedicinal Uses —
The drug is used in both Africa and Asia as a remedy for leprosy and
lupus. In East Africa, it has been dispensed for fevers, abdominal distress, and venereal diseases.
The Xhosa and the Mfengu of southern Africa use the leaves as a food vegetable.
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The plant is used
in West Africa as a fever remedy and as an ingredient in steam treatment of malaria.
Constituents —
Hydrocotyle yields a volatile oil, the principal components of which are
β-caryophyllene, β-farnesene, germacrene D, β-elemene, and bicycloelemene.
411
The plant contains
several saponins, including centelloside, madecassoside, asiaticoside, oxyasiaticoside, brahmoside,
thankuniside, and brahminoside and the related terpenoid aglycones, such as centellinic, brahmic,
madecassic, betulic, and Asiatic acids.
412,413
Pharmacological Studies —
The plant has been employed in folk medicine for a long time in
the treatment of various skin diseases. Several proprietary products available in Europe contain-
ing
Centella
are indicated for the treatment of indolent ulcers, wounds, and keloid and hypertro-
phic scars. The drug has been found useful in the management of postoperative wounds and in the
prevention and treatment of scarring from burns.
414
The wound-healing properties of a tincture of
Hydrocotyle
have been confirmed by a controlled clinical trial.
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The drug inhibits the growth
of human fibroblasts
in vitro
415
and was found effective in patients with venous disorders of the
lower limbs.
416
CHASMANTHERA DEPENDENS
Botanical Name —
Chasmanthera dependens
Hochst
Family —
Menispermaceae
African Names —
Igbo: ogbo; Yoruba: ato oloriraun
Description —
The plant is a woody climber with a rough stem. The young stem is hairy.
The leaves are oval or rounded, 3-10 cm long and about the same size in width. The leaf surface
is papery and sparsely hairy on both sides. It has a heart-shaped base, and the apex is very shortly
drawn out; the stalks are leafy and up to 30 cm long. The plant produces many flowers in the axils of
the leaves; they are tiny and hairy and borne on long, slender common stalks covered with soft hairs.
Habitat and Distribution —
It grows in wild forest margins and savanna, especially in rocky
terrains. It is cultivated as a medicinal plant in West and Central Africa. The plant is distributed
from Sudan in the north to Ghana in the West Coast and spreads down to Ethiopia and South
Africa.
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Ethnomedicinal Uses —
The root is used as a decoction for the treatment of venereal diseases.
Fresh leaves are rubbed on sprained joints and bruises, used as a dressing for fractured limbs, or
mixed with shea butter and used as an embrocation for pains and stiffness. A general tonic for physi-
cal and nervous debilities and for inflammatory and exhausting diseases is produced by boiling the
stem bark.
Constituents —
Chasmanthera
and the other members of the plant family Menispermaceae
contain nonnitrogenous bitter principles such as chasmanthin, columbin, and palmatine. Berberine-
type alkaloids, palmatine, colombamine, and jateorhizine also occur in the plant.
Pharmacological Studies —
Berberine sulfate inhibits
Leishmania tropica
in very low con-
centrations. The compound also possesses uterine stimulant activity.
417
A methanol extract of the
dried leaves of
Chasmanthera dependens
exhibited anti-inflammatory and analgesic activities. The
extract (100-400 mg/kg p.o.) produced dose-related inhibition of carrageenan-induced paw edema
and cotton pellet-induced granuloma in rats. The extract also inhibited the leakage of Evan's blue
induced by acetic acid in mice. The analgesic property was determined by its effect on writhing
response induced by acetic acid as well as on the early and late phase of formalin-induced paw lick-
ing in mice.
418
