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12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1

Eurycoma longifolia Jack

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

Mal. Misc. 2: 45 (1822).

Southern Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines (subsp. eglandulosa (Merr.) Nooteboom only).

A decoction of the root is a well-known febrifuge. A poultice of the pounded root is used on wounds, ulcers and sores. The bitter constituents of the roots will in a large enough dose provoke vomiting and are employed as such. In Brunei, a decoction of the root is drunk to relieve gastric pains, reduce high blood pressure and fever. The bark is used as a blood coagulant in complications during childbirth. Also in Brunei, the leaves are reportedly eaten raw to relieve stomach-ache. Furthermore, the roots are locally popular as an aphrodisiac.

A spindly unbranched androdioecious tree or shrub up to 10 m tall, or with a few upright branches, each crowned by an umbrella-like rosette of leaves; leaves up to 100 cm long, leaflets lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate, 5-20 cm x 1.5-6 cm; petals lanceolate to ovate or obovate-oblong, 4.5-5.5 mm x 2-3 mm, puberulous on both surfaces, styles rather long with a peltate 5(-6)-lobed stigma, elevated about 1 mm above the carpels; fruit 10-17(-20) mm x 5-12 mm. Eurycoma longifolia is common in the understorey of primary and secondary forest on a wide range of soils and is locally abundant.

[68] Ang, H.H., Chan, K.L. & Mak, J.W., 1995. Effect of 7-day daily replacement of culture medium containing Eurycoma longifolia Jack constituents on the Malaysian Plasmodium falciparum isolates. Journal of Ethnopharmacology 49: 171-175.
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Tahan Uji

Uji, T., 1999. Eurycoma longifolia Jack. 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