farmeric January 26th, 2011
A Las Cuatro or known as Four o’clock, Beauty of the Night.
Scientific name: Mirabilis longiflora blanco
Local names: A las cuatro (Sp., Tag.); maravilla (Sp.); gilala (Tag.); oracion (Sp.); supiros (Sp.); tallang (Sul.); four o’clock, marvel of Peru (Engl.)
A las cuatro is found throughout the Philippines in the settled areas in cultivation and also frequently spontaneous in the vicinity of towns. It was introduced from Mexico by the Spaniards at an early date, and is now pantropic in distribution. It is often cultivated in Manila and in large towns.
This is an erect, nearly or quite smooth, branched plant, growing to a height of 20 to 80 centimeters. The leaves are narrowly ovate, 4 to 10 centimeters long. The involucres are crowded, calyxlike, 1 centimeter long or less, and have one flower. The perianth is white, purple, or yellow, 3 to 4 centimeters long, with a cylindrical tube, which is slightly enlarged upward, and with a spreading limb. The fruit is narrowly ovoid, about 8 millimeters long, black, and finely ribbed.
Uses of Roots
According to Maurin the roots contain oxymethylanthraquinone, but their purgative action is not due to this constituent. Yoshimura and Trier isolated an alkaloid, trigonelline, from the plant. Chopra reports of the purgative action of trigonelline. Wehmer records that the plant yields galactose and arabinose.
Bruntz and Jaloux state that the roots are official in the Danish (2) Pharmacopoeia.
Burkill mentions that the pounded seeds are used in Malaya and elsewhere by Chinese and Japanese women for making a cosmetic powder. Burkill quotes Rumpf, who states that the powdered root was used with rice powder and sandalwood for the same purpose by the Spanish women in Ternate.
In China the flowers are also used for cosmetic purposes.
Burkill says that the big tubers were formerly mistaken in Europe for the source of Jalap, and used as a Continue Reading »
