Botanical name: Abrus precatorius L. (Family Fabaceae)
Local names: Cam thao day, day chi chi, cuom thao, tuong tu dang.
English names: Jequirity, Indian liquorice, wild liquorice, crab-eye vine, coral pea, prayer beads, rosary pea.
Description:
Abrus precatorius L. is a deciduous dextrose climber with slender flexible branches. Leaves peripinnate, 5-10 cm long; leaflets 20-40, ligulate-oblong 1-1.6 cm long. Racemes many-flowered, crowded, usually shorter than the leaves. Corolla white, 3-4 times the calyx c. 2 mm. Pods oblong, turgid, 2.5-3.7 cm long. Seeds small, ovoid, bright scarlet with a black spot at the hilum.
Abrus precatorius L. (Family Fabaceae)
Flowering period:June - August.
Distribution: Grows wild in mountainous regions; also cultivated.
Parts used:
The roots, leaves and stem are collected in autumn during the flowering period. They are used fresh or dried. The seeds are toxic and only used externally.
Chemical composition:
Seeds contain two lectins, abrin-a and abrin-b, indole alkaloids and anthocyanins. Three toxins, abrin I, II, and III, and agglutinins have been isolated from seeds. Seeds also contain the alkaloids abrine, hypaphorine, trigonelline and choline; flavons, abrectorin and aknone; gallic acid, keto steroid P-sterone, other steroids, abricin, abridin and cholesterol, stigmasterol, β-sitosterol, terpenoids, squalene and urease enzyme.
It also contains amino acids - alanine, serine & valine. Leaves contain glycyrrhizin and abrins. Roots also contain glycyrrhizin, an acid resin, precol, abrol; alkaloids, abrasine and precasine, and isoflavaquinones, abrusquinone A, B and C and also polysaccharides. A saturated alcohol and pinitol have been isolated from waxy material of leaves (Ghani, 2003; Rastogi & Mehrotra, 1990 & 93).
Therapeutic uses:
The roots, the stem and the leaves are effective in the treatment of coryza, cough, fever, jaundice resulting from viral hepatitis, and intoxications. They are used as an edulcorating agent in composite recipes. The daily dose is 8 to 16g in the form of a decoction. The seeds, very toxic, are applied externally in an antiseptic and anti-inflammatory poultice to accelerate the bursting of boils and to cure mastitis and galactophoritis.
