Alchorn Tree

Overview

Alchornea rugosa is native to East Asia - China, Assam, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines to New Guinea, northern Australia and the Bismarck Islands. The tree is sometimes harvested from the wild as a local source of food and medicines. The leaves are cooked and eaten as a vegetable, and the wood is used for fuel.

Vernacular Names

Julong jantan (Malaysia), Aguioi (Tagalog-Philippines), Thaangpoi (Thai), Yu mai shan ma gan (Chinese), Dom d[os]m (Vietnamese).

Agroecology

A plant of the moist tropics, where it is usually found at elevations up to 1,200 m, occasionally ascending to 2,800 m. Its habibat is in shady or semi-shady places in various primary forest types; secondary and very degraded seasonal forests; grass fields, cultivated places; coconut plantations etc; often in wet places like marshes or along water courses. Found on a wide range of soils in the wild, often on or near limestone, partly even on guano near caves, clay loam, deep clay, ultramafic; bedrock: shale, quartzite, sandstone, granite.

Morphology

• Stem - branchlets pubescent when young, becoming glabrous. The bole is up to 15 cm in diameter. 
• Leaves -   stipules subulate, 5-7 mm; petiole 0.5-3 cm; leaf blade cuneate-obovate or elliptic to broadly lanceolate, 10-21 × 4-10 cm, margins serrulate, apex acuminate; venation pinnate, lateral veins 8-12 pairs.
• Flowers - inflorescence terminal, branched, 7-25 cm, puberulent or glabrous; bracts triangular. Male flowers 5-11 per bract,sepals 2-4, stamens 4-8. Female flowers: pedicel ca. 1 mm, pubescent; sepals 5, triangular, pubescent; ovary densely puberulent; styles 3, filiform. 3.5-7 mm.
• Fruits -  pedicel ca. 2 mm; capsule 3-lobed, ca. 8 mm in diameter, subglabrous. 
• Seeds - ovoid, ca. 5 mm, brownish, verrucate.

Cultivation

It is generatively propagated by seeds.

Chemical Constituents

Five compounds: 3β-friedelanol, friedelan-3-one, methyl syringate, isovite- xin, and rhoifolin.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• A decoction of leaves and roots has been used in Malaysia to treat fever and ague.
• In Indonesia and Vietnam, the fruits have been applied as a purgative.
• The leaf juice is used in Papua New Guinea as an abortifacient.