Ziziphus oenopolia
Ziziphus oenopolia
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rhamnaceae
Genus: Ziziphus
Species:
Z. oenopolia
Binomial name
Ziziphus oenopolia
Synonyms[1]
  • Rhamnus oenopolia L.
Leaves and fruits
Flowers

Ziziphus oenopolia, commonly known as the jackal jujube, small-fruited jujube or wild jujube, is a flowering plant with a broad distribution through tropical and subtropical Asia and Australasia. In India, it is mostly found in the deciduous forests of the southern part of the country.

Description

It is a spreading, sometimes climbing, thorny shrub growing to 1.5 m in height. The leaves are simple, alternate, ovate-lanceolate, acute and oblique. The flowers are green, in subsessile axillary cymes. The fruit is a globose drupe, black and shiny when ripe, containing a single seed.[2]

Distribution and habitat

It ranges from the Indian subcontinent through southern China and Southeast Asia to northern Australia. It grows along roadside forests and thickets.[3]

Uses

The berries are edible and the bark is used for tanning.[3]

Medicinal

The plant produces cyclopeptide alkaloids known as ziziphines and has a long history of use as an herbal medicine. In India, the root is used in Ayurvedic medicine.[2] The Konkani people of Maharashtra use the chewed leaves as a dressing for wounds.[4] In Burma the stem bark is used as a mouthwash for sore throats, for dysentery, and for inflammation of the uterus.[5] Research in Thailand has found that extracts of ziziphine from Ziziphus oenopolia show antiplasmodial in vitro activity against the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum.[6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ziziphus oenoplia.
  1. ↑ The Plant List: A Working List of All Plant Species, retrieved 30 January 2016
  2. 1 2 Ayurvedic medicinal plants.
  3. 1 2 Ara et al. (2008).
  4. ↑ Kuvar & Bapat (2010).
  5. ↑ Myanmar Medicinal Plant Database.
  6. ↑ Sunit Suksamrarn et al. (2005).

Sources


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