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 Botany
Buntot pusa is an annual, hairy herb, 30 to 60 centimeters in
height. Leaves are oblong, 2.5 to 7.5 centimeters long, stalkless or short-stalked,
and acute of blunt at the tip. Flowers are small, borne in whorls or
hairy spikes. Calyx is very small, 5 to 7 millimeters long, with triangular teeth; enlarging
to a fruit. Corolla is usually pink, with a slender tube and hairy lobes. Nutlets
are ellipsoid and smooth.
Distribution
- Abundant in open, wet places at low and
medium altitudes from northern Luzon to Palawan and Mindanao.
- Also occurs in India to southern China and Malaya.
Constituents
- Aerial parts of P. auricularius yielded 4 cleistanthane type diterpenoids (C20), one of which is auricularic acid. Compounds shown to exhibit spasmolytic activity.
- Study yielded three novel diterpenoids from the whole plant of P. auricularis, namely:
cleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid and 7-hydroxy- and 7-acetoxycleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acids. (7)
- Aerial parts yielded two diterpenes characterized as 7-(3-methylbutyroxy)cleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid and 7-senecioxycleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid. (10)
- Phytochemical screening of leaves yielded alkaloids, glycosides, tannins and flavonoids.
(11)
Properties
- Considered diuretic, antipyretic, antihelmintic, antidiarrheal, spasmolytic, and anti-cancer.
Parts used
Leaves, leaf juice, whole plant.
Uses
Folkloric
- Used in children, for
simple stomach problems as pains and flatulence. The plant is pounded,
alone or poulticed with lime, and applied to the abdomen.
- Poultice is also used for parasitism, kidney ailments, sore throat, headache,
stomach pains and diarrhea.
- Malays used the plant for treating simple disturbances of the stomach in children.
- In Java, leaves reportedly used for stomach problems.
- In Bangladesh, used for stomach pains as
warm leaf poultice; and as leaf juice in tetanus, as blood purifier, and for helminthiasis. Leaf juice used as eye drops in hysteria. Plant extract given with salt for diarrhea.
- In Indonesia, poultice of leaves used as cure for diarrhea, colic, worms, sores, kidney problems and sore throat. In Indo-China, decoction used for malaria; lotion used as rubefacients against rheumatism. (6)
- In Thailand, roots, stems or leaves used as diuretic and antipyretic. In Malesia infusion of leaves of several Pogostemon spp. taken to relieve painful menstruation. (6)
- Leaf juice used as eye drops in hysteria.
- In Bangladesh, extract given with salt in diarrhea by the Marma in Bandarban.
Studies
• Diuretic Activity: In a screening of Indian plants for biologic activity, M auricularis showed diuretic activity. (1)
• Spasmolytic Diterpenes: Two diterpenes, isolated from the aerial parts of Pogostemon auricularis, have been characterized as 7-(3-methylbutyroxy)cleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid and 7-senecioxycleistanth-13,15-dien-18-oic acid. (10)
• Cytotoxic / Thrombolytic / Leaves: Study evaluated a methanolic extract of leaves for cytotoxicy and thrombolytic activities. In Brine shrimp lethality assay, with vincristine as positive control, results showed a LC50 value of 10.51 µg/ml. Extract showed considerable thrombolytic activity exerting 42.1208% lysis of the blood clot. (11)
Availability
Wild-crafted. |
