Eurycoma longifolia
Family
Simaroubaceae
Synonyms
None
Vernacular Names
| Malaysia | Tongkat ali, Bedara pahit, Penawar pahit, Lempedu pahit, Muntah bumi |
| Indonesia | Babi kurus (Java), Tungke ali (Sumatera) |
| Thailand | Phiak (Peninsular), Tung saw |
| Laos | Tho nan |
| Cambodia | Antong sar, antoung sar |
| Vietnam | C[aa]y b[as] b[eej]nh |
Geographical Distributions
This plant is found in Southern Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam), Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo and the Philippines (subsp. eglandulosa (Merr.) Nooteboom only).
Description
This is a spindly tree or shrub, up to 10 m tall with bisexual flowers on the same tree. It can be without branches, or with a few upright branches and each crowned by an umbrella-like rosette of leaves.
The leaves are up to 100 cm long with leaflets lance-shaped to reverse egg-shaped-lance-shaped size 5-20 cm x 1.5-6 cm.
The petals are lance-shaped to egg-shaped or reverse egg-shaped-oblong size 4.5-5.5 mm x 2-3 mm. It is lately hairy on both surfaces. The styles are rather long with a stalk on the lower surface 5(-6)-lobed stigma and positioned at about 1 mm above the fruits.
The fruit is 10-17(-20) mm x 5-12 mm.
Ecology / Cultivation
E. longifolia is common in the understorey of primary and secondary forest on a wide range of soils and is locally abundant. It is rarely occurs up to 1000 m altitude.
Line Drawing / Photograph
Read More
1) Cultivation
2) Safety
References
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Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(1): Medicinal and poisonous plants 1.
