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12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2

Uncaria acida (Hunt.) Roxb.

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

Hort. bengal.: 86 (1814).

Nauclea acida Hunt. (1808), Uncaria ovalifolia Roxb. (1824), Uncaria acida var. papuana Valeton (1926).

Malaysia: kait-kait, gambir-gambir. Vietnam: vu[oos]t chua.

From Burma (Myanmar) to Thailand, southern Vietnam, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, Lesser Sunda Islands, Borneo, the Philippines and New Guinea.

In Peninsular Malaysia, the leaves are used for rubbing on the body to relieve pain. In Indo-China, the leaves are eaten.

A rather slender climber, 4—6 m tall, hooks 2—3 cm long; leaves ovate to elliptical, 5—9 cm x 2.5—5 cm, chartaceous to subcoriaceous, glabrous, ultimate veins fine, frequently with domatia underneath, stomata present on upper surface, petiole 10—12 mm long, stipules deeply bifid, 4—7 mm long; flowering head up to 2 cm in diameter, over 5 cm in fruit, peduncle 1.5—2 cm long; flowers subsessile, white, interfloral bracteoles absent, calyx tube 2 mm long, lobes elliptical to suborbicular, 1 mm long, corolla tube 5 mm long, pubescent outside, lobes 1.5 mm long, hairy at both sides; capsule oblong, 13 mm x 2—2.5 mm, pointed at both ends, sparsely pubescent, pedicel 5—6 mm long, slender; seed 5 mm x 0.5 mm, wings long, white, slender, long acuminate. Uncaria acida is locally abundant in humid primary and secondary forest, also along rivers, on swampy localities, at low altitudes.

[74] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1964—1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1964) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
[135] Burkill, I.H., 1966. A dictionary of the economic products of the Malay Peninsula. Revised reprint. 2 volumes. Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Vol. 1 (A—H) pp. 1—1240, Vol. 2 (I—Z) pp. 1241—2444.
[841] Ridley, H.N., 1922—1925. The flora of the Malay Peninsula. 5 volumes. Government of the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States. L. Reeve & Co, London, United Kingdom.

Anas Subarnas

Subarnas, A., 2001. Uncaria acida (Hunt.) Roxb.. 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