Amorphophallus konjac

Amorphophallus konjac K. Koch, Wochenschr. Gärtnerei Pflanzenk. 1: 262. 1858.

(Amorphophallus konjac K. Koch; Photo David Scherberich and growingwithplants.com)

Latin Name: Amorphophallus konjac K. Koch

Family & Genus: Araceae, Alocasia

Synonym Name: Amorphophallus mairei H.Lév.; Amorphophallus nanus H.Li & C.L.Long; Amorphophallus palmiformis Durieu ex Rivière; Amorphophallus rivierei Durand ex Carrière

Brachyspatha konjac (K.Koch) K.Koch; Conophallus konjak Schott; Conophallus konniaku Schott ex Fesca; Hydrosme rivierei (Durand ex Carrière) Engl.; Proteinophallus rivierei (Durand ex Carrière) Hook.f.; Tapeinophallus rivierei (Durand ex Carrière) Baill.

English Name: Rivier Giantarum, Elephant Foot

Chinese Name: 花蘑芋 hua mo yu

Vietnamese Name: Nưa Konjac, Khoai Nưa, Khoai Ngái, Nưa trồng .

Description: Tuber brown, slightly glossy, depressed globose, to ca. 20 cm high, to ca. 30 cm in diam., seasonally producing numerous long rhizomatous offsets with swollen apical part, these to ca. 50 × 3 cm. Leaf solitary; petiole background color dirty whitish pinkish or dirty cream-colored, often nearly entirely covered by large, elongate, dark green confluent spots and smaller white dots, or with numerous small, blackish green spots, very variable, to ca. 100 × 8 cm, glabrous or with scattered punctiform warts at base; leaf blade highly dissected, to ca. 200 cm in diam., rachises narrowly winged; leaflets dull green adaxially, elliptic, 3-10 × 2-6 cm, acuminate. Inflorescence long pedunculate (rarely short); peduncle colored as petiole, to ca. 110 × 5 cm. Spathe outside base dirty pale brownish with blackish green spots, or dirty pale whitish grayish with a few scattered blackish green dots, near margin flushed with purple; inside base maroon with or without a paler whitish purplish zone above, elliptic-lanceolate to broadly ovate-triangular, 10-60 × 10-55 cm, base and limb ± separated by a shallow constriction, margin ± strongly sinuous, apex acute; base within densely verrucate, verrucae tiny, punctiform; limb erect, outside uniformly dark purplish brown, or with scattered blackish green spots, inside uniformly dark brown, glossy, undulate and/or longitudinally folded, basal margin spreading. Spadix during female anthesis producing a strong smell of rotting meat and producing small, clear, slightly viscous droplets, sessile, 15-110 cm; female zone cylindric or narrowly conic, 2-11 cm, 1-4 cm in diam. at base and to ca. 6 cm in diam. at apex, flowers congested or distant; ovary whitish or pale pinkish, apex purplish, depressed globose, oval or suborbicular in cross section, 2-2.5 mm high, 2-4 mm in diam., 2- or 3-loculed; style purplish, 1-5 mm, ± slender, 0.7-1 mm in diam., often distinctly branched at apex; stigma dirty yellowish brown, depressed, strongly undulate, often sunk between enlarged style branches, 2- or 3(or 4)-lobed, oval or triangular in cross section, ca. 0.5 mm high, 1.5-2 mm in diam., verruculose-scabrous; transitional zone between female and male zones occasionally with partly staminodal male flowers and/or pistillodial female flowers or flowers showing all intermediate stages; male zone cylindric, slightly fusiform, or slightly obconic, 2-12 × 1-6 cm, flowers congested; male flowers consisting of 3-5 stamens; stamens 2-2.5 mm; filaments pale orangish yellow or whitish, 0.5-1 mm, basally or entirely connate or slightly diverging at apex; anthers dirty whitish grayish, or ± cream-colored, truncate or subtruncate, 1-1.5 × 0.8-2 mm, rectangular in cross section; connective purplish, turning grayish at anthesis, slightly raised; pores apical, oval or reniform; appendix narrowly fusiform-conic, often laterally compressed and with irregular, shallow longitudinal furrows, 10-85 × 1.5-6 cm, acute, dark purplish brown or paler, densely rugulose, base often with several diamond-shaped, flattened staminodes. Flowering: April to June; fruiting: August to September.

Distribution: Growing in thin forests, forest edges, moist places along the two sides of ravine. Can be cultivated. Distributed in Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu and the south of the Yangtze River.

Part Used: Tuber. Chinese name: Moyu.

Harvest & Processing: Harvested in October to November, excavated tubers, used fresh or washed, sliced and sun-dried.

Chemistry: Mainly contains Polysaccharides, such as glucomannan and mannan. Organic acid, such as citric acid, cinnamic acid, heneicosene, and glycosides, such as 3, 4-dihydroxybenzaldehyde D-glucoside, ect., and a variety of amino-acids and crude protein, etc.

Pharmacology: Cancer-suppressing, anti-inflammatory, anti-bacteria, blood-fat-reducing, weight-losing, blood-sugar-lowering and aging-delaying.

Properties & Actions  Pungent, bitter, cold. Toxic. Sweeping phlegm, detoxicating, removing blood stasis and relieving pain.

Indications & Usage: Phlegm and cough, dyspeptic disease, malaria, scrofula, abdominal mass, injuries from falls, anthracia, furunculosis, erysipelas, scalding and burns, snake bites. Internal: decocting, 9-15g (above 2 hours). External: appropriate amount, triturated for application, or grinded with vinegar and coated.

Examples:

1. Tertian malaria: cut 7 solid bulbs of rivier giantarum (as large as semen firmianae). Tow hours before onset, swallow with cold water.

2. Epidemic parotitis: rivier giantarum 1 piece. Grind thick juice with vinegar and smear onto lesions, 4-5 times a day.

3. Abdominal mass: solid bulbs of rivier giantarum 60g. Put into pork tripe, stew and eat.

References

- libproject.hkbu.edu.hk

- efloras.org

- theplantlist

- Niwa, T. Maekawa, K. Etoh, H. Shimizu, A. et al.; The chemical composition of tobiko [by-product of Amorphophallus konjac processing;  2001;  AGRIS, Volume : 48 Issue : 12 Page : 943-947