Bengal Arum

Overview

Bengal arum (Typhonium trilobatum) is the native range in India to South China and Malaya. It is widely grown in India, Bangladesh, China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, and Srilanka for its rhizomes, leaves, and petioles. The plant is grown in South India for the rhizome which is eaten. Other species are similarly eaten in the Australasian region. The fresh rhizome is very acrid and is a powerful stimulant. The plant contains soluble calcium oxalate.

Vernacular Names

Anaiyatikkaku (Hindi), Sam ghas (Assamese), Tharkun (Bengali), Ma ti li tou jian (Chinese), Ghatkol (Bangladesh).

Agroecology

T. trilobatum is found in tropical secondary forests, thickets, grasslands, roadsides at low altitudes up to 1,000 m above sea level. It prefers growing in semi-shade, full sun with moderate water. It is a weed occurring in open sites and in the lowland, often on wet soils, also on limestone.

Morphology

• Roots - a short, tuberous rhizome.
• Stems - subglobose or subcylindric, producing few annual offsets or splitting up.
• Leaves - leaf blade cordate-ovate in outline, usually deeply 3-lobed, rarely 5-lobed. Petiole green or variously flushed with purple, 25–40 cm.
• Flowers - Inflorescence a spadix; peduncle 5 cm long; spathe 10-20 cm, with dark red limb; spadix with 1 cm pistillate part, sterile part 1-2 cm long and covered with whitish intertwined filamentous sterile flowers, naked interstice 1-2.5 cm, staminate part 2-3 cm long, appendix 5-10 cm long and dark red.
• Fruits - berries, green with purple spots, turns white when mature, ellipsoid, contains 1-2 seeds.
• Seeds - white when mature, ellipsoid, 1- or 2- seeded.

Cultivation

• It can be propagated by seed. Remove seeds from the berry which contains chemicals that inhibit germination.
• It is also can be propagated by offsets.

Chemical Constituents

Thiamine, niacin, carotene, folic acid, sterols, β-sitosterol, flavonoid, phenol compounds, alkaloids, glycosides.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The leaf extract is used in treating diarrhea, pain, and inflammation.
• It is good for analgesic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-diarrheal.
• The roots are used in the treatment of stomach troubles, hemorrhoids, tumors, and cancers.
• The rhizome of this plant is traditionally prescribed for the treatment of skin eruption, gastric ulcer, asthma, headache, swelling, excessive expectoration, traumatic injury, lymph tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, vomiting, cough, pyogenic sore throat, rheumatism, abscess, and snakebite, diarrhea, dysentery, stimulant, and menstrual troubles.
• Leaves and tubers are cooked as vegetables and given to the patient suffering from piles and rheumatism.