479

12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1

Vitex negundo L.

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

Sp. pl. 2: 638 ('938'; 1753).

Vitex incisa Lamk (1786), Vitex paniculata Lamk (1786), Vitex leucoxylon Blanco (1837).

Five-leaved chaste tree, horseshoe vitex (En). Indonesia: ai tuban (Ambon), lagundi laut laki-laki (Malay, Moluccas). Malaysia: lagundi, lemuning, lenggundi (Peninsular). Papua New Guinea: paparau (Kurtachi, Bougainville). Philippines: lagundi (Filipino), dangla (Iloko). Cambodia: trasiet. Thailand: khon thee khamoa (central), ku-no-kaa-mo (Malay, Pattani), kuuning (Malay, Narathiwat). Vietnam: ng[ux] tr[ar]o.

Eastern Africa and Madagascar to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, throughout the Malesian region, east to the Palau Islands, the Caroline Islands and the Mariana Islands. Vitex negundo is widely cultivated in Europe, Asia, North America and the West Indies, and has a tendency to escape and naturalize.

Roots and leaves are applied in various manners as an anodyne, bitter tonic, expectorant and diuretic. As a febrifuge, the leaves can be employed as a poultice or in decoction. A decoction of the leaves is applied to wounds and ulcers, for aromatic baths, and internally as galactagogue, emmenagogue, antigastralgic, and against flatulence. In the Philippines the seeds are boiled in water and eaten, or the water is taken internally, to prevent the spread of toxins from poisonous bites of animals. Syrup, tablets and capsules prepared from leaves and flowering tops are given for coughs, colds, fever and asthma. In Papua New Guinea, sap from crushed heated leaves is diluted with water to treat coughs and sore throat. In India, the flowers are used in the treatment of diarrhoea, cholera and liver disorders, apparently for their astringent properties. Vitex negundo is often planted as a hedge or for ornamental purposes. The twigs are used for wattle-work and rough baskets.

A deciduous shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall, bark surface slightly rough, peeling off in papery flakes, pale reddish-brown; leaflets 3-5, narrowly elliptical to ovate-lanceolate, minutely puberulous or glabrous above, densely tomentose or puberulent below, median leaflet 5-15 cm x 1-4 cm, with 2-12(-18) pairs of lateral veins, median leaflet on a 1-2.5 cm long petiolule, lateral ones sometimes subsessile; cymes arranged in panicles which are terminal and axillary in the upper leaf axils; calyx 1-2 mm long, shortly 5-toothed, corolla blue-violet, villous inside; fruit globose to broadly ovoid, 3-6 mm long, purple or black when mature. Vitex negundo is very variable and many varieties and formae have been distinguished. It is often found gregariously in humid places or along watercourses, in waste places, thickets and mixed open forest, up to 1700 m altitude.

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E.P. Capareda

Capareda, E.P., 1999. Vitex negundo L.. 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