2894

12(3): Medicinal and poisonous plants 3

Smithia sensitiva Aiton

Hort. kew. 3: 496 (1789).

LEGUMINOSAE

2n = 32, 38

Smithia javanica Benth. (1852).

Malaysia: pokok tangki bukit (Peninsular). Thailand: sano lek (south-eastern). Vietnam: r[us]t roi, d[aaj]u m[is]t.

Smithia sensitiva is found throughout tropical Asia westward to India and Sri Lanka, throughout South-East Asia, to northern Australia.

In Java the whole plant of Smithia sensitiva is boiled and eaten cold to treat difficulty in urination and bladder stones. In India the leaves are considered refrigerant and a galactagogue. The leaves are eaten as a pot herb. Cattle will eat the plant. In India Smithia conferta J.E. Smith is credited with laxative and tonic properties, and given to cure biliousness and rheumatism; it also used to cure sterility in women.

An annual or perennial herb up to 30—90(—150) cm tall, much-branched, with strong taproot; branches decumbent-ascending to erect, glabrous. Leaves paripinnate, 1—3 cm long, slightly sensitive to the touch, covered with long white hairs; stipules ovate-acuminate, 8—10 mm long with a basal extension; leaflets 3—10(—12) pairs, narrowly oblong, 4—15 mm x 2—3 mm, obliquely truncate at base, rounded or obtuse at apex; stipels absent. Inflorescence an axillary raceme, 1—10-flowered, with distinct bracts and bracteoles, peduncle 6—30 mm long. Flowers bisexual; pedicel 3 mm long; calyx 2-lipped from the base, 6—9 mm long, glabrous or with a few hairs at the tip; corolla papilionaceous, standard obovate, 8—9 mm long, bright yellow, tinged red at the base or not, wings obovate, bright yellow, keel pale yellow; stamens in 2 bundles of 5; ovary superior, glabrous, 1-celled; style curved. Fruit a jointed pod 7 mm x 1 mm, with up to 7 orbicular segments 1-seeded each, indehiscent. Seeds reniform, 1 mm long, brown, shiny.
Smithia sensitiva can be found flowering and fruiting throughout the year. It has nodulating ability. Smithia comprises some 30 species found in the Old World tropics, most of them in Asia and Madagascar.

Smithia sensitiva is found in not too dry open grassy localities, ranging from abandoned fields and embankments of waterways to swamps, from sea-level up to 1200 m altitude.

The risk of genetic erosion is limited because Smithia sensitiva is widely distributed and common in disturbed habitats.

Research on the phytochemistry and pharmacological activity of Smithia sensitiva has not been done, but is needed to determine its prospects as a medicinal plant for wider use.

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L.J.G. van der Maesen

van der Maesen, L.J.G., 2003. Smithia sensitiva Aiton. In: Lemmens, R.H.M.J. and Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(3): Medicinal and poisonous plants 3. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea