Uncaria cordata (Lour.) Merr
Heart-shaped Uncaria / Akar kelait (Bru.)(Tut.); Engkalait (Dus.); Akar engaluh (Ib.)
Description
Traditional Medicinal Uses
Ecology
Propagation
Distribution
Precaution
Terrestrial woody vine that can climb up to 10 m tall. Leaves are simple, oppositely arranged, glabrous, adaxially green and abaxially pale green. Leaf blade is narrowly to broadly ovate, acute at apex, rounded or truncate at base with entire margin. Stems are erect, quadrangular, rusty brown, densely hairy with recurved woody hooks at the base of petioles used for climbing purposes. Inflorescence a head arising at leaf axils on short hooked stalks. Flowers are many, small and whitish-yellow. Fruit a spindle- shaped, dehiscent capsule that is borne in umbellate clusters of many fruits and contains many seeds. Seeds
Fleshy fruit and seeds are edible. It is reported that the plant is a potent inhibitor of starch
It is mostly found in open forests, on slopes, open secondary vegetations, along roadsides and along forest edges.
Seeds and offset division.
Distributed in tropical
None