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12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1

Derris trifoliata Lour.

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

Fl. cochinch.: 433 (1790).

Derris uliginosa (Willd.) Benth. (1852), Derris heterophylla (Willd.) Backer ex K. Heyne (1927).

Indonesia: areuy ki tonggeret, tuwa areuy (Sundanese), gadel (Javanese). Malaysia: tuba bekut (Peninsular). Papua New Guinea: gamo (Zimanki, Western Province). Philippines: silasila, asiasimanan (Tagalog), butong (Bisaya). Thailand: khwaep thale, phak thaep (central), thopthaep thale (Phetchaburi). Vietnam: long k[es]n, c[os]c k[es]n n[uw][ows]c, d[aa]y c[os]c.

Eastern Africa, Madagascar, Mascarene Islands, South and South-East Asia including the whole of Malesia, the Pacific and Australia.

Derris trifoliata is used in local medicine in India as a stimulant, antispasmodic and counter-irritant, and against rheumatism, chronic paralysis and dysmenorrhoea, and in Papua New Guinea a decoction of the roots is used externally against fever and internally against sores. Thai traditional doctors use roots or stems as a laxative, carminative and anti-arthritis treatment. It serves as a fish poison. The leaves are sometimes used as fodder.

A liana up to at least 15 m long, sometimes an erect shrub, branches soon becoming glabrous, dark red; leaflets 3-5(-7), variably glabrous; inflorescence terminal and axillary; flowers with glabrous, green calyx and white, pale pink or pale mauve corolla, standard without basal callosities, glabrous; fruit oblong or elliptical to broadly oval, with a narrow wing along one side. Derris trifoliata grows near the coast in swampy scrub vegetation and forest behind beaches, on muddy foreshores and estuaries, and in edges of mangroves, sometimes in pure stands.

[97] Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink Jr, R.C., 1963-1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen, the Netherlands. Vol. 1 (1963) 647 pp., Vol. 2 (1965) 641 pp., Vol. 3 (1968) 761 pp.
[202] 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.
[580] 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.
[597] Holdsworth, D.K., 1977. Medicinal plants of Papua New Guinea. Technical Paper No 175. South Pacific Commission, Noumea, New Caledonia. 123 pp.
[1035] Nguyen Van Duong, 1993. Medicinal plants of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Mekong Printing, Santa Ana, California, United States. 528 pp.
[1178] Quisumbing, E., 1978. Medicinal plants of the Philippines. Katha Publishing Co., Quezon City, the Philippines. 1262 pp.
[1520] Verdcourt, B., 1979. A manual of New Guinea legumes. Botany Bulletin No 11. Office of Forests, Division of Botany, Lae, Papua New Guinea. 645 pp.

Auzay Hamid

Hamid, A., 1999. Derris trifoliata Lour.. In: de Padua, L.S., Bunyapraphatsara, N. and Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea