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12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1

Ficus copiosa Steud.

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

Nomencl. bot., ed. 2, 1: 635 (1840).

Ficus magnifolia F. v. Mueller (1863), Ficus krausseana Rechinger (1912), Ficus longipedunculata Rechinger (1912).

Indonesia: ampelas (Sulawesi), gohi (Halmahera), sosa kecil (Ternate). Papua New Guinea: kagua (Raluana, New Britain).

Sulawesi, the Moluccas, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, northern Australia, Vanuatu, the Palau Islands and Yap.

In Papua New Guinea, the unripe fruits are chewed to relieve stomach-ache, and the fruit latex is applied to boils. Fresh leaves are used in the Trobriand Islands as a poison antidote; the roots and leaves are used to treat stomach-ache. In New Britain, massaging the stomach with crushed leaves is said to relieve stomach-ache. Young leaves and figs are eaten raw or cooked. The bark is used for clothing and ropes.

A small to medium-sized tree up to 20 m tall, bole muriculate, bark surface brown; leaves alternate to decussate, ovate to obovate or obpentagonal, 10-35 cm x 5-18 cm, base subcordate to subcuneate, apex acute to acuminate, margin entire, with 6-10 pairs of lateral veins, hairy, stipules 1-2.5 cm long; figs axillary to cauliflorous, slightly depressed-globose, 25-60 mm in diameter; flowers with 4-7 tepals, male flowers with 1-2 stamens, female flowers long-stipitate. Ficus copiosa is found in both coastal and inland regions, in primary and secondary forest, up to 1700 m altitude. It is also grown in villages.

[248] Chew, W.-L., 1989. Moraceae. In: George, A.S. (Editor): Flora of Australia. Vol. 3. Hamamelidales to Casuarinales. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, Australia. pp. 15-68.
[281] Corner, E.J.H., 1965. Check-list of Ficus in Asia and Australia. Gardens' Bulletin, Singapore 21: 1-186.
[576] Henderson, C.P. & Hancock, I.R., 1988. A guide to the useful plants of Solomon Islands. Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Honaira, Solomon Islands. 481 pp.
[603] Holdsworth, D.K., 1992. Medicinal plants of the Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain Island, Papua New Guinea. Part I. International Journal of Pharmacognosy 30: 185-190.
[605] Holdsworth, D.K. & Balun, L., 1992. Medicinal plants of the East and West Sepik Provinces, Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Pharmacognosy 30: 218-222.
[610] Holdsworth, D.K. & Rali, T., 1989. A survey of medicinal plants of the Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea. International Journal of Crude Drug Research 27: 1-8.
[1104] Paijmans, K. (Editor), 1976. New Guinea vegetation. Elsevier Scientific Publishing Company, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 209 pp.

J.P. Rojo, F.C. Pitargue & M.S.M. Sosef

Rojo, J.P., Pitargue, F.C. & Sosef, M.S.M., 1999. Ficus copiosa Steud.. 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