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12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2

Tabernaemontana macrocarpa Jack

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Tabernaemontana in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Mal. Misc. 2(7): 80 (1822).

Tabernaemontana megacarpa Merr. (1909), Tabernaemontana plumeriaefolia (Elmer) Merr. (1923).

Indonesia: simbar badak.

Thailand (peninsular), Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines.

In Sabah, the fruit is used to relieve toothache. In Kalimantan, the chopped root is an ingredient of arrow poison. In Sumatra, the sticky latex is applied as birdlime.

A tree, 5—25 m tall, trunk 10—50(—100) cm in diameter; leaves elliptical to narrowly elliptical, (5—)10—41 cm x (2—)4—22 cm, (1.5—)2—4.4 times longer than wide, apex acuminate or less often apiculate or rounded, petiole 10—40 mm long; inflorescence lax, 7—20 cm x 5—15 cm, few—many-flowered, pedicel (3—)10—45 mm long, bracts absent; flowers fragrant, open during the night, sepals pale green or orange, with 12—30 colleters in 1—3 rows, corolla in mature bud 15—31 mm long with a comparatively broadly ovoid or subglobose head for 25—40% of the length, 2—3 times as wide as the narrowest part of the tube, apex acute or blunt, tube 2.5—5 times longer than the calyx, 10—21 mm long, not twisted; fruit consisting of 2 separate mericarps, subglobose or less often obliquely ellipsoid, dehiscent, orange or red, many-seeded, aril crimson or pale red. Tabernaemontana macrocarpa is found in forest understoreys or less often scrub from sea-level to 1000 m altitude. It flowers and fruits throughout the year.

[407] Heyne, K., 1950. De nuttige planten van Indonesië [The useful plants of Indonesia]. 3rd Edition. 2 volumes. W. van Hoeve, 's-Gravenhage, the Netherlands/Bandung, Indonesia. 1660 + CCXLI pp.
[672] Middleton, D.J., 1999. Apocynaceae. In: Santisuk, T. & Larsen, K. (Editors). Flora of Thailand. Vol. 7(1). The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand. pp. 1—153.

L.S.L. Chua & S.F.A.J. Horsten

Chua, L.S.L & Horsten, S.F.A.J., 2001. Tabernaemontana macrocarpa Jack. In: van Valkenburg, J.L.C.H. and Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea