Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Kembang Bugang - Clerodendrum calamitosum, Linn

This plant was named as Melor Susun at the Taman Herba Sungai Batu Pahat, Perlis. The mother plant was purchased a long time ago at Sungai Buluh Leper Colony. I like this plant because of the showy flowers which grows in bunch typical of Clerodendrum in general and the mild fragrance it imparts. The pure white flowers has resulted in it being dubbed as White Butterfly by the English. This plant is native to Southeast Asia and especially common in Java. The name Kembang Bugang is actually its Javanese name. It is also called Kechi beling, Kaji beling in its native land. While in Sumatera it is called Kayu Gambir. The Chinese called this Hua Shi Su

During Tun Mahathir's visit he asked me of this plant. I told him it is just an ornamental plant to add a touch of fragrance to the air as I placed it beside my Kenanga and Bunga China. I was wrong! It indeed has multitude of uses as medicine in its native land. Today I stand corrected Tun.

It has two pharmacologial effects at the least i.e. haemostatic and lithotryptic. The parts they use as medicine are the leaves, the roots and the fruits.

The leaves have haemostatic, antipyretic, diuretic and probably anti-inflammatory/antibacterial properties and is being used in the treatment of dysentery, fever, stangury and gonorrhoea, destruction of calcium oxalate and triple-phosphate stone of the kidneys, and syphillis.

The roots are basically used as treatment of snake bites. Here a piece of th root the size of your thumb is chewed and the liquid swallowed while the residue is applied over the bites.

The fruit is used in the treatment of dysentery.

Another of my passion is finding plants with lithotriptic properties. Kidney and Gall Bladder stones are two other very frustrating diseases to treat. The pain experienced by patients is really out of this world. Treatment offered by modern medicine is not really full proof guarantee of permanent relieve. The use of alkalinizing drugs take way too long to provide an effective dissolution of the stones while the gastric irritation as a result of frequent intake of these drugs deter patients from continuing therapy. The more recent use of Shockwave lithotripsy with stanting has been successful in breaking up the stone but the procedure is very painful and patients continue to suffer from frequent excretion of fragment of stone even after removal of the stant. Recurrence rate is also very high amongst my patients who has undergone such therapy. I really pity them when they come with renal colic. There is another plant which our Indonesian counterpart called by the name of Kechibeling (Stobilanthes crispus) which has proven time and again to be effective in effecting the extrusion of renal stone of reasonable size within a period of 1 to 10 days of therapy. The leaves of this appears almost similar to Cledrodenrum calamitosum in colour but those of the former are stiff and rouogh while the latter is smooth and soft.

Recent research done has show the plant to contain compounds which proves to have cytotoxic activities to combat malignant conditions including cancers of the lungs, kidneys, intestines, breasts, skin and also melanomas.

Aesthetically, this plant is a marvelous plant to grow in your garden. It flowers regularly and with the showy flowers and fragrance will definitely enhance the beauty of your garden. At the same time with the remedy for snakebites at least it can act as a first aid for you before going to the hospital for further treatment. It has probably prevented death from snakebites of people in its native land to won it the reputation and an antidote. But always remember snakes don't bite unless they felt threaten so if you see a snake just shoo it away rather than killing it. We are not their prey per se. If left undisturbed they will just slowly and sure slide away into the wilderness.

Have a nice day.

2 comments:

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Generic Viagra Blog said...

This is really interesting because I like to collect it's leafs and that's perfect because I make teas with those leafs and I discovered it's really good when we have stomachache.