Abelmoschus manihot (L.) Medik.

Abelmoschus manihot (L.) Medik. 

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Latin Name: Abelmoschus manihot (L.) Medik.

Family: Malvaceae; Genus: Abelmoschus

Synonym Name: Abelmoschus caillei (A.Chev.) Stevels; Abelmoschus manihot var. manihot; Abelmoschus manihot var. megaspermus Hemadri; Abelmoschus manihot f. platidactylis Bakh.; Abelmoschus manihot var. timorensis (DC.) Hochr.; Abelmoschus platidactylus (Bakh.) Nakai; Abelmoschus pseudomanihot (DC.) Endl.; Hibiscus japonicus Miq.; Hibiscus manihot L.; Hibiscus papyriferus Salisb.

English Name:  Abelmoschus manihot, Aibika

Chinese name: 黄蜀葵 huang shu kui

Vietnamese name: Cây Vông vang, Bụp vàng, Bông vang

Description:  Herbs annual or perennial, 1-2 m tall, most parts long simple-hispid and minutely simple- or few-rayed pubescent. Stipules linear-lanceolate, sometimes 2 on each side of petiole, 1-1.5 cm; petiole 6-18 cm; leaf blade palmately 5-9-lobed, 15-30 cm in diam., lobes oblong-lanceolate, sometimes ± pinnately lobed, 8-18 × 1-6 cm, sparsely long hispid on both surfaces, margin robustly, obtusely serrate. Flowers solitary, subapical and forming terminal raceme; pedicel 1.5-4 cm. Epicalyx lobes 4 or 5, ovate-lanceolate, 15-25 × 4-5 mm, sparsely long hispid. Calyx spathaceous, minutely 5-lobed, nearly entire, longer than epicalyx, puberulent only, not hispid, caducous at fruiting. Corolla yellow with purple center, ca. 12 cm in diam. Staminal column 1.5-2.5 cm; anthers nearly sessile. Stigma purple-black, spatulate-disk-shaped. Capsule ovoid-ellipsoid, 4-5 × 2.5-3 cm, densely hirsute. Seeds many, reniform, with several lines of hairs. Flowering: August to October.

Distribution: Growing in valley brush or thickets along fields or ditches. Distributed in South-central and Southwest China, Hebei, Shaanxi, Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Fujian.

Cultivation Details

Plants grow well in lowland tropical areas. Yields begin to drop when plants are grown at elevations above 500 metres and plants may develop an annual habit of growth at higher elevations. Plants have a high moisture requirement and grow best in areas with an evenly distributed annual precipitation of 1,000mm or more. They prefer a relatively high humidity and a stable temperature above 25°C.

Easily grown in any well-drained soil in a sunny position. Plants are most productive when grown in well-prepared fertile soils that are rich in organic matter.

When well looked after, the plant can be highly productive - yields of 40 - 60 tonnes per hectare have been achieved.

Part Used: Medical part: flowers, seeds, leaves, stem or stem bark and roots. Chinese name: flowers: Huangshukuihua. Seeds: Huangshukuizi. Leaves: Huangshukuiye. Stem or stem bark: Huangshukuijing. Roots: Huangshukuigen.

Harvest & Processing: Flowers: Batch picking buds apart from reserving seed in July-October and sun-dried. Seeds: harvested when fruits mature in Sept to Nov sun-dried and thresh, removed impurities then totally sun-dried. Leaves: harvested in spring and summer, used fresh or sun-dried. Stem or stem bark: harvested in autumn and Winter; sun-dried or fire-dried. Roots: excavated in autumn, washed and sun-dried.

Chemistry: Phenolic compounds, tannins, steroids, saponins, flavonoids, carbohydrates and proteins. Flowers contain quercetin-3-robinobioside, quercetin-3-glucoside, hyperin, myricetin, quercetin, cannabiscitrin, myricetin-3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside, glycerolmonopalmitate, 2, 4-dihydroxy benzoic acid, guanosine, adenosine, maleic acid, heptatriacontanoic acid, 1-triacontanol, tetracosane, beta-sitosterol, beta-sitosterol-3-O-beta-D-glucoside

Pharmacology: Analgesic, immunity-enhancing, myocardial-damage-protecting, anti-inflammatory and antipyretic.

Properties & Actions: Flower: sweet, pungent, cool. Seeds: sweet, cold. Leaves: sweet, cold. Stem or stem bark: sweet, cold. Root: sweet, bitter, cold. Flowers: inducing urination and treating stranguria, activating blood circulation and arresting bleeding, reducing swelling and detoxifying. Seeds: excrete water, stimulating menstrual discharging, reducing swelling and detoxifying. Leaves: eliminating heat and detoxifying, set a fracture and promoting tissue regeneration. Stem or stem bark: to remote heat and detoxifying, reducing defecation or urination Roots: excrete water, stimulating menstrual discharging and detoxifying.

Indications & Usage: Flower: stranguria, hematemesis, non-traumatic hemorrhage, metrorrhagia and metrostaxis, retention of afterbirth, anthracia and ulcer, burns caused by hot liquids or fire. Seeds: stranguria, edema, constipation, infrequent lactation, anthracia, injury from falls. Leaves: toxic heat and ulcerative carbuncle, urinary tract infection, fractures, burns, trauma. Stem or bark: consistent pyrexia, constipation, difficulty in urination, furunculosis and swelling, scalding injuries. Root: stranguria, edema, constipation, injury from falls, infrequent lactation, anthracia, cerumen and parotitis. Flowers: oral administration: decocting, 5-15g; or powdered, 3-6g. External application: appropriate amount, powdered and coated with oil for applying. Seeds: oral administration: decocting, 10-15g; or powdered, 2-5g. External application: appropriate amount, smashed for applying. Leaves: oral administration: decocting, 10-15g, fresh products up to 30-50g. External application: coated with oil for applying. Roots: oral administration: decocting, 9-15g; or smashed, 1.5-3g each time. External application: appropriate amount, smashed or ground for applying or decocted for washing.

Examples      

1. Cough with lung heat: abelmoschus manihot, coltsfoot, balloon flower, radix scutellariae, mousquitotrap, 9g each, greenish lily and gingkoren, 6g each. Decoct in water for oral dose.

2. Epistaxis: Grind abelmoschus manihot seed into powder 2 qian, prepare with freshly drawn water and swallow.

3. Burns: fresh sunset abelmoschus leaf, mash into paste and apply.

4. Injury from fall: Sunset abelmoschus root, forrest wintergreen root, red achyranthis radix, clarke boea herb, herba lycopi, sargentgloryvine stem, camphortree root, 15g each. Decoct in water for oral dose.

Other Uses

The root of this plant is used by the Japanese as a size for their handmade papers, which are prepared from the inner bark of Edgeworthia gardneri and several varieties of the paper mulberry (Broussonetya papyrifera). The root is macerated in water and added to the paper pulp. The mucilage is obtained from the roots of this plant as follows:- Wash off the dirt, soak in fresh water for some hours, and crush them to pieces. The substance thus prepared should then be put in a linen bag and soaked again in water. When the material gets thoroughly soft, the juice comes out of the bag by manipulating in the vat in which pulp has been previously mixed to receive the paste. The bag should be squeezed now and then, as the mucilage does not come out by itself. The paper maker can judge whether sufficient mucilage is in the water or not by its glutinous consistency. This is the best mucilaginous plant extensively used in Japan.

References

Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database

efloras.org

Theplantlist

Lai XY, Zhao YY, Liang H.; Studies on chemical constituents in flower of Abelmoschus manihot ; Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2006 Oct;31(19):1597-600.

S. Jain Pritam, A. Todarwal Amol, B. Bari Sanjay and J. Surana Sanjay, 2011. Analgesic Activity of Abelmoschus manihot Extracts. International Journal of Pharmacology, 7: 716-720.