EMAN RESEARCH PUBLISHING | <p><em>Labisia Pumila</em> - A Source of Medicine</p>
Advances in Herbal Research | online ISSN 2209-1890
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Labisia Pumila - A Source of Medicine

Nozlena Abdul Samad a *

+ Author Affiliations

Australian Herbal Insight 1 (2) 004-006 https://doi.org/10.25163/ahi.110002

Submitted: 06 June 2018 Revised: 29 June 2018  Published: 01 July 2018 


Abstract

Labisia pumila has been reported to contain phenolic compounds. Phenolic compounds may have potent antioxidant activity and also anti-carcinogenic, anti-bacterial, anti-viral or anti-inflammatory activities. Keeping this in view, the present study is initiated with an aim to review the potential biological activity of this plant.

Introduction

GO

The significance of phytochemical work increases rapidly when certain compounds inside a plant is shown to possess certain biological activity. Phytochemical investigation provides data on the chemical constituents of the plant itself but many isolated natural products have not undergone any biological testing. Therefore, bioassays on crude plant extracts are usually carried out in order to determine the biological activity of the plant itself.

The use of Labisia Pumila as an important medicinal plant has been known since antiquity to treat many ailments. The plant has commonly been used for gynecological problems such as to quicken and facilitate childbirth, as a post-partum medicine, to treat flatulence, dysentery and menstruation problem. It has also been used to treat dysmenorrheal, gonorrhea and hemorrhoids (Burkill., 1935) . Women often take the plant alone or by mixing with other herbs. A number of studies have proven the therapeutics effects of this plant as previously reported in ethno botany (Zainon, 2000) .

Labisia pumila has been reported to contain phenolic compounds. Phenolic compounds may have potent antioxidant activity and also anti-carcinogenic, anti-bacterial, anti-viral or anti-inflammatory activities (Norhaiza et al., 2009) . Keeping this in view, the present study was initiated with an aim to identify the potential biological activity of this plant. We have chosen a bioassay system to evaluate the anti-angiogenesis activity of Labisiapumila as this assay has not been conducted on this particular plant before.

Botanical aspects of Labisia pumila

GO

Labisia pumila is a plant from the family of Myrsinaceae. It was previously known as Labisia pothoina. The plant has also been called ‘selusuh fatimah, rumput siti fatimah, akar fatimah, kunci fatimah, rumput palis, matapelanduk rimba, pokok pinggang, tadah matahari and bunga belangkas hutan’. Most of the Malays in Malaysia refer to it as ‘Kacip Fatimah’ (Burkill., 1935) .

Labisia pumilais a sub-herbaceous plant with rooting from the stem and commonly found in the lowlands and hill forests of Peninsular Malaysia at an altitude between 300 and 700 m (Burkill., 1935, Zhari et al., 1999) .

The leaf is dark green in color on adaxial and light green in color on abaxial. The leaves are few, normally 4-12 and positioned as pointing upward. The leaf apex has a broad or narrowing form of wing or often absent. The leaf base is tapered or broad rounded. The whole leaf may grow about 5-35cm long and 2-8cm wide. The petiole is relatively short, about 2-8cm in length but may grow up to 12 cm long (Zhari et al., 1999) .

The flowers are borne in a very small size in pink or white colour. The flower’s petals are wrapped round and enclosing the stamen. Plant root is relatively tough and woody with few secondary roots and long primary roots (Zhari et al., 1999) .

Most traditional medicine practitioners classify this plant by referring to it’s  leaf’s shape and colours (Stone, 1988). There are three varieties of Labisia pumila which are L.pumila var alata, L.pumila var pumila and L.pumila varlanceolata. These three varieties differ in their leaf stem. L.pumila var. alata has a short leaf stem which is about 2-8cm with broad wing, var. pumilawith short leaf stem which is also about 2-8cm but small wing and for varlanceolata , it has long leaf stem( 5-13cm) without wing (Stone, 1988) .

The traditional uses of Labisia pumila

GO

A mixture of cream that contains Labisia pumila leaves and coconut oil has been used topically on babies to reduce stomach discomfort (Indu Bala and Ng, 2000) .

Traditional practitioners usually use only two varieties of L.pumilai.e variety alata and variety pumila whereas variety lanceolata is believed to have less effect on health. Therefore this scientific investigation concentrated on these two varieties of L.pumila (Jamia et al., 1999)

 

Ethnobotany information of Labisia pumila

GO

Natives in Pahang, Perak and Kelatan and Bajau are known to use a water decoction of L.pumila (Zainon et al., 1999) . They normally use the root part or the mixture of the whole part of the plant itself. They use this kind of tonic as an after child birth medicine (Chan et al., 1995).

In Sarawak, natives often prepare water decoction of this plant combined with other herbs and used to maintain women’s health (Runi, 2001) .

Biological Activity of Labisia Pumila

GO

The biological activity that has been reported on this plant describes the beneficial and adverse effect of this plant on living matter.

Ethanolic extract and water extract of the leaf and the root part of Labisia pumila var alata and var pumila have shown no significant oestrogenic activity on recombinant yeast cell (Jamal et al., 1998) and Ishikawa- var 1 in vitro (Jamia et al., 1999) .

Methanolic extract of the plant has shown to restrain 58% of the Platelet Activating Factor binding in vitro (Ibrahimet al., 1996) compared to the positive control which gave 85% inhibition with the IC50 value being 2.56 x 10 -7 M. The extract was further fractionated into 3 fractions namely diethyl ether, butanol and water. Each of these fractions gave different percentage of inhibition. Diethyl ether gave 9% inhibition, butanol gave 25% inhibition and water gave 5% of inhibition (Ibrahim et al., 1996) . This research suggests that the methanol extract of Labisiapumila  may have anti-inflammatory activity and supports the use of it by traditional practitioners to treat menstrual pain  and other inflammatory related illness (Ibrahim et al., 1996) .

Antibacterial study of Labisia pumila crude extract showed inhibition of the growth of  Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacilus subtilis and staphylococcus aureus but this particular extract did not show any potent effects on Proteus mirabilis, Streptococcus faecalis, Salmonella typhii and  Escherichia coli (Chan et al., 1995) . 

P.aerugiosa can cause urinary tract infection (UTI) and septicemia and therefore this plant may have the potential to treat bacterial infection of the blood and urinary tract.  It may also help women after child birth to reduce the risk of this infection (Chan et al., 1995) .

The toxicity and side effects of Labisia pumila

GO

Aqueous extract of this plant was found not to have any toxicity towards animal reproductive system (Ezumi et al., 2005) . On the contrary, a study demonstrated the presence of toxic compounds in the petroleum ether extract of Labisia pumila. The extract  caused sinusoidal degeneration of liver with concomitant inflammation of the renal tubules during day 1–7 post-partum in xenograft model (Effendy et al., 2006) . However, a recent study on winstarrats revealed that low dose of the plant extract was not associated with toxicity (Singh et al., 2009) .

The fresh plant of Labisia pumila may cause skin allergies. Dermatological testing has proven that the variety alata may cause dermatitis to those with hypersensitive skin (Jamia et al., 2001) .

About the Author

GO

Dr. Nozlena Abdul Samad is a researcher and lecturer of University of Science, Malaysia.

Dr Nozlena Samad

References


Burkill., I. H. (1935) A Dictionary of  the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. Crown Agents, London.

Zainon, A. S., Nik Musa'dah, M., Ismail, M. & Wan Fadhilah, W. Z. A. (1999) Ethnobotany of Medicinal Plants at Pos Lanai, Lipis Pahang. Proceedings Of The Seminar 'Interdisplinary Approaches In Natural Products Research',35-42.

Norhaiza, M., Maziah, M. & Hakiman, M. (2009) Antioxidative Properties of Leaf Extracts of A Popular Malaysian Herb, Labisia PumilaJournal Of Medicinal Plant Research, 3, 217-223.

Burkill., I. H. (1935) A Dictionary of  the Economic Products of the Malay Peninsula. Crown Agents, London.

Zhari, I., Nurhayati, I. & Jaafar, L. (1999) Herba LabisiaeMalaysian Herbal Monograph, 1, 45-48.

Indu Bala, J. & Ng, L. T. (2000) Herbs: The Green Pharmacy of Malaysia. Vinpress Sdn Bhd., Kuala Lumpur, 53-54.

Stone, B. C. (1988) Notes on the Genus Labisia Lindl. (Myrsinaceae). Malayan Nature Journal, 42, 43-51.

Jamia, A. J., Houghton, P. J. & Milligan, S. R. (1999) Kacip Fatimah, A Malay Traditional Herb for Pregnant Women. Phytochemicals And Biopharmaceutics From The Malaysian Rain Forest, 166-176.

Jamal, A. J., Houghton, P. J. & Milligan, S. R. (1998) Testing of Labisia Pumila for Oestrogenic Activity Using Recombinant Yeast Sceen. Journal Of Pharmacy And Pharmacology, 50 (Supplement), 79. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2042-7158.1998.tb02279.x

Ibrahim, J., Young-Hwa, K., Dae-Yeon, S. & Byung, H. H. (1996) Inhibitory Effects of Malaysian Medicinal on Platlet-Activating Factor (PAF) Receptor Binding. Natural Product Sciences 2, 2, 86-89.

Ezumi, W. M. F., Amrah, S., Mohamad Nasrul, I., Mohd. Suhaimi, A. W. & Syed Mohsin, S. J. (2005) Evaluation of the Teratogenicity of Aqueous Extract of Labisia Pumila Var. AlataIn Rats Malaysian Journal Of Medical Sciences 12(2), 13-21.

Effendy, A. W. M., Siti Nur-Thahirah, J., Hussin, J. M. & Zamri-Saad, M. (2006) The Side Effects of Kacip Fatimah Extract on Liver and Kidney of White Rats. Journals Of Sustainability Science And Management, 1, 40-46.

Singh, G. D., Ganjoo, M., Youssouf, M. S., Koul, A., Sharma, R., Singh, S., Sangwan, P. L., Koul, S., Ahamad, D. B. & Johri, R. K. (2009) Sub-Acute Toxicity Evaluation of An Aqueous Extract of Labisia Pumila, A Malaysian Herb. Food And Chemical Toxicology, 47, 2661-2665. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fct.2009.07.031

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