Frogfruit

Overview

Frogfruit is an ornamental plant, which is native to Brazil and United States. It can be found in tropical areas around the globe, a naturalized species in many places. It is an important member of the family Verbenaceae showing a variety of medicinal uses. It can be the source of indigenous medicine. The IUCN status conservation is Least Concern.

Vernacular Names

Busbusi (Tagalog-Philippines), Ya kelt pla (Thai), D[aa]y l[uws]c (Vietnamese), Man am ca dam (Cambodian), Pa zun tha bet (Burmese), Grodverbena (Swedish), Erba Luigia Minore (Italian), Verveine Nodiflore (French).

Agroecology

P. nodiflora succeeds in a wide range of habitats from the subtropics to the tropics. It grows along stream banks, in grassy places, and near the coast at elevations of 300-2,300 m. Succeeds in any well-drained soil in a sunny position. Prefers a moderately fertile soil, but succeeds in soils of low fertility, and it is drought tolerant.

Morphology

• Stems - usually purplish, flat with ridges when young, long covered with fine medifixed hairs.
• Leaves - numerous, nearly without stalks, obovate, 1 to 2.5 cm long, with blunt or rounded tip and wedged-shaped base; margins on the upper half are sharply toothed. Spikes appear at the ends of stalks, growing singly from the axils of the leaves.
• Flowers - very small, pink or white, crowded in ovoid or cylindric spikes, 1-2.5 cm long and about 6 mm in diameter. Corolla consists of a slender and cylindric tube, about 3 mm long, with a limb 2.5 mm wide, opening at the apex as it lengthens.
• Fruits – oval, 1-1.5 mm in diameter, release two tiny brown.
• Seeds - barely visible to the naked eye, flattened seeds at maturity.

Cultivation

• Generative propagation is done by seeds - sowing the seed in a greenhouse in the middle of spring. When they are large enough to handle, prick the seedlings out into individual pots and plant them out in late spring or early summer.
• Vegetative propagation is done by division.

Chemical Constituents

Triterpenoid, alkaloids, flavonoid, phenol, steroid, nodofloretin, glycosides-nodiflorin A, nodiflorin B, lippiflorin A, tannin, rutin, β-Sitosterol, luteolin, nepetin, batatifolin, hispidulin, larycitrin, stigmasterol.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

Medicinal Uses

• The plant is used to treat ulcers, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, anti-tumor, anti-malarial, anti-fungal, antipyretic, anodyne, antibacterial, astringent, carminative, deobstruent, diuretic, emmenagogue, emollient, febrifuge, parasiticide, and refrigerant.
• It is useful in the treatment of gonorrhea, lithiasis, ischuria, constipation and pain in the knees, and the treatment of hookworm.

Traditional Uses

• The juice of the plant is cooling, and is used to relieve minor gastric troubles, fevers, coughs and colds.
• The aroma of the inhaled plant is breathed in to treat coughs and colds.
• A poultice of the fresh plant is applied to ripen boils. A paste or poultice is also applied to swollen cervical glands, to erysipelas, burns, and to chronic indolent ulcers.
• The juice of the root is used in the treatment of gastric troubles
• In Pakistan, crushed fresh plant mixed with water and drained, taken on an empty stomach daily for about one week for hemorrhoids.
• In Philippines, infusion of leaves is used as carminative and diuretic.