MORPHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS, COMPOUND COMPOSITION, AND USAGE OF Strobilanthes cuisine (Nees) Kunte HAD HARVESTED IN BAC KAN PROVINCE

Abstract

"Chàm mèo" trees which belong to the Acanthaceae family have the scientific name Strobilanthes cuisine (Nees) Kunte. Parts used for medicine are the leaves, stems, and roots. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the “Chàm mèo” tree has a bitter taste, and cold properties, which can help to clear the heat, detoxify, eliminate rash, and swelling, and stop bleeding. “Chàm mèo” is used to treat acute diseases such as high fever, headache, thirst, rash, nosebleeds, dysentery, pharyngitis, bacteremia, tonsillitis, and respiratory infections. Invetigations showed that Thanh Dai (Cham meo leaf powder) has a good effect on the treatment of leukemia. “Chàm mèo” roots are also used to treat infectious encephalitis, encephalitis B, typhoid, and mumps. However, there are few published studies on Strobilanthes cuisine (Nees) Kuntze. Besides, the percentage of people who recognize and know how to use “Chàm mèo” for treatment is still low. This report describes the morphological characteristics of parts in detail: roots, leaves, stems, and flowers of “chàm mèo” trees collected in Bac Kan province. “Chàm mèo” leaves contain groups of compounds: glycosides, sterols, hydrolyzed triterpenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, organic acids, reducing agents, coumarins, and saponins. At the same time, several useful methods of preparing and using the “Chàm mèo” tree as medicine for ethnic minorities in Bac Kan province have been identified.