Mirabilis jalapa

Mirabilis jalapa L.

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Latin Name: Mirabilis jalapa L.

Family: Nyctaginaceae; Genus: Mirabilis

Synonym Name: Jalapa congesta Moench; Jalapa officinalis Garsault; Mirabilis ambigua Trautv.; Mirabilis jalapa var. jalapa; Mirabilis jalapa subsp. lindheimeri Standl.; Mirabilis jalapa var. lindheimeri (Standl.) Cory; Mirabilis lindheimeri (Standl.); Mirabilis pedunculata Stokes; Mirabilis planiflora Trautv.; Mirabilis pubescens Zipp. ex Span.; Mirabilis suaveolens Billb. ex Beurl.; Mirabilis xalapa Noronha; Nyctago hortensis Dum.Cours.; Nyctago jalapae (L.) DC.; Nyctago versicolor Salisb.

English Name: Four-o’clock, Marvel of Peru, Beauty-of-the-night, Common Four-o’clock, beauty of the night, beauty-of-the-night, coat of many colours, false jalap, four o'clock flower, four o'clock plant, garden four-o'clock, marvel of Peru, marvel-of-Peru.

Chinese name: 紫茉莉 zi mo li

Vietnamese name:

Description: Herbs annual, to 1 m tall. Roots tuberous, black or black-brown. Stems erect, much branched, cylindric, glabrous or slightly pubescent, inflated on nodes. Petiole 1-4 cm; leaf blade ovate or ovate-triangular, 3-15 × 2-9 cm, base truncate or cordate, margin entire, apex acuminate. Flowers usually several clustered at apex of branches, fragrant; pedicel 1-2 mm. Invo- lucre campanulate, ca. 1 cm, 5-lobed, lobes triangular-ovate, acuminate, glabrous, persistent. Perianth purple, red, yellow, white, or variegated; tube 2-6 cm; limb 2.5-3 cm in diam., opening in late afternoon, closing next morning. Stamens 5; filaments slender, exserted; anther globose. Fruit black, globose, 5-8 mm in diam., coriaceous, ribbed and plicate. Endosperm white mealy. Flowering: June to September, fruiting: September to October.

Distribution: Growing on limesmarginis, at wall foot or in gardens. Often cultivated. Distributed in all parts of China. The medicinal materials are produced in all parts of China.

Cultivation Details:

Succeeds in almost any ordinary garden soil. Prefers a fertile well-drained soil in full sun or part day shade. The plant can also be grown as an annual, flowering freely in its first year of growth.

Plants can self-sow freely in warmer areas (these seedlings can be easily transplanted) and they can become a weed in such situations due to their deep rooting habit.

The flowers are sweetly scented and do not open until the afternoon.

The young growth is particularly susceptible to aphis infestation.

Members of this genus are rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer.

Part Used: Medical part: roots, leaves, flowers and fruits. Chinese name: roots: Zimoligen. Leaves: Zimoliye. flowers: Zimolihua. Fruits: Zimolizi.

Harvest & Processing: Roots: harvested from Oct-Nov in the very year of sowing, excavated the whole roots, washed off sediment, used fresh, or removed the rhizome residue and fibril, scraped bark, cleared dark speckle, sliced, immediately sun-dried or baked to dry. Leaves: collected when flourishing and before flowering, washed and used fresh. Flowers: picked from July to September when flowering, used fresh, or sundried. Fruits: collected mature fruits from Sept-Oct, removed impurities, and sun-dried.

Chemistry:

- Roots contain protein, sterol stigmasterol and β-sitosterol, astragaloside II, astragaloside II, astragaloside IV, astragaloside VI, flazin, 4'-hydroxy-2, 3-dihydroflavone 7-beta-D-glucopyranoside, gingerglycolipid A , 3, 4-dihydroxybenzaldehyd, p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, beta-sitosterol and daucosterol.

- Leaves contain sterides compounds, fatty acid and various free amino acid, etc. Seeds contain starch, fatty acid like 8-hydroxyoctadeca-cis -11 and 14-dienoic acid; β-sitosterol and β-amyrin.

Pharmacology: Anti-bacterial, antivirotic and anti-tumors, and lapactic, ction of rabbit aortic muscle, antiviral activity, antimicrobial activity, antimalarial activity, anthelmintic activity, antioxidant activity, aytotoxic activity anti-tubercular

Properties & Actions: Root: sweet, tasteless, little cold. Leaves: sweet, tasteless, little cold. Flower: little sweet, cool. Fruits: sweet, little cold. Roots: clearing heat for inducing diuresis, detoxifying for promoting blood circulation. Leaves: clearing heat-toxin, dispelling wind and draining dampness, promoting blood circulation. Flowers: moistening the lung and cooling blood. Fruits: clearing heat and resolving speckle, disinhibiting dampness and detoxifying.

Indications & Usage  Root: pyretic stranguria, whitish and turbid urine, edema, leucorrhea with red and white discharge, arthralgia and swelling, anthracia and swelling toxicity, mammary abscess, injuries from falls. Leaves: anthracia and sores, sarcoptidosis, injuries from falls. Flower: empsyxis. Fruits: nevus spilus on face, crusted tetter. Roots: oral administration: decocting, 15-30g, fresh products 30-60g. External application: appropriate amount, fresh products smashed for applying. Leaves: external application: appropriate amount, fresh products smashed for applying or extracted juice for unction. Flowers: oral administration: 60-120g, fresh products pounded to extract juice. Fruits: external application: appropriate amount, removed outer shuck, powdered for unction, or decocted for washing.

Examples:     

1. Stranguria (difficulty in micturition): primula maximowiczii regel, herb of maidenhair 15g each. Cut into pieces, stew with liquor 60g, warm up and swallow.

2. Sores and furuncles, injuries from fall: an appropriate amount of four-o'clock leaves (fresh). Pestle and apply externally to the affected lesions, one time a day.

3. Empsyxis: white flower of four-o'clock 120g. Pestle collect juice, prepare with winter honey and swallow.

4. Grape sores (skin impetigo, discharging yellow fluid after broken): four-o'clock fruit, grind into a powder, prepare with cold water and smear.

Edible Uses:

Tender young leaves-cooked as a vegetable. An emergency food, only eaten when all else fails.

An edible crimson dye is obtained from the flowers. It is used for colouring cakes and jellies.

The seed is crushed and used as a pepper substitute.

References

- Chinese Medicinal Material Images Database

- efloras.org

- Theplantlist

- Lai GF, Luo SD, Cao JX, Wang YF.; Studies on chemical constituents from roots of Mirabilis jalapa; Zhongguo Zhong Yao Za Zhi. 2008 Jan; 33(1):42-6.

- Aoki K, Cortés AR, Ramírez Mdel C, Gómez-Hernández M, López-Muñoz FJ.; Pharmacological study of antispasmodic activity of Mirabilis jalapa Linn flowers; J Ethnopharmacol. 2008 Feb 28;116(1):96-101.

- Rozina R. Pharmacological and biological activities of Mirabilis jalapa L. IJPR [Internet]. 30May2016