Giant Milkweed

Overview

Giant milkweed is native to Indian subcontinent, southern China, Indochina, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Naturally distributed in areas ranging from dry woods and stream banks to roadsides. The sap is toxic to mammals, and causes vomiting and intestinal irritation when ingested. The plant is harvested from the wild for a range of uses, but is especially valued as a medicinal plant and source of fibre. All parts of plants considered to be medicinally effective if taken in small doses.

Vernacular Names

Faux arbre de soie (French), Mudar yercum (India), Remiga (Malaysia), Po thuean (Thai), Kapal-kapal (Tagalog-Philippines), and Biduri (Indonesia).

Agroecology

It thrives upon soils where nothing else will grow, needing neither culture nor water. Tolerates drought and saline sites. Prefers a well-drained soil in a sunny position, at elevations up to 1,000 m. It has been considered a good plant for bringing wasteland under tillage and for reclaiming drifting sands.

Morphology

• Barks - pale.
• Leaves - obovate or oblong, 10-20 cm long, 3-8 cm wide, cottony beneath, pointed at the tip, heart-shaped at the base.
• Flowers - have a faint odor, not unpleasant, downy on the outside, arranged in axillary or subterminal, simple or compound, inflorescences. Corolla is 1.5-2.5 cm across usually white, sometimes dull-purple or purplish-lilac; the lobes are ovate-lanceolate, and spreading.
• Fruits - a follicle, recurved, 7.5-10 cm long.
• Seeds - ovate, 5-6 mm long, with a bright, silky-white coma.

Cultivation

Propagated by seeds or stem cuttings.

Chemical Constituents

Glukocide (calotropin, fuscharin, calotoksin), damar, floavil, alban, dehydrovomifoliol, pleurone, calotropagenin, flavonoids, terpenoids, tannins, and resin.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• Root bark is considered emetic, used as a substitute for ipecac syrup.
• Latex is considered bitter, heating, purgative, caustic, acrid, expectorant, depilatory, anthelmintic. Used to induce abortion.
• Flowers are considered digestive, stomachic, and tonic.
• Studies have suggest analgesic, antimicrobial, antioxidant, antidiarrheal, anti-pyretic, antivenom, cytotoxic, hepatoprotective, wound healing properties.
• Bark used for dermatitis and syphilis treatment is so effective for the latter that plant is known as 'vegetable mercury'.
• Root bark is used in the treatment of dysentery.
• Leaves used as a poultice.
• Extracts of roots and leaves are used against abdominal tumors, cancer boils, syphilis, tuberculous leprosy, skin diseases, piles, wounds, rheumatism, and insect bites.
• Powdered flowers are useful in the treatment of colds, cough, asthma, catarrh, indigestion, and loss of appetite.