Ziziphus oenoplia

Ziziphus oenoplia
Ziziphus oenoplia
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Rosales
Family:	Rhamnaceae
Genus:	Ziziphus
Species:	Z. oenoplia
Binomial name
Ziziphus oenoplia (L.) Mill.
Synonyms[1]
Rhamnus oenopolia L.

Leaves and fruits

Flowers

Ziziphus oenoplia, 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.

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 oenoplia var. brunoniana show antiplasmodial in vitro activity against the malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum.^[6]

References

Notes

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

Sources

• Ara, Hosne; Hassan, Md. Abul; & Khanam, Mahbuba (2008-06). "Taxonomic study of the genus Ziziphus Mill. (Rhamnaceae) of Bangladesh". Bangladesh Journal of Plant Taxonomy 15 (1): 47–61. Check date values in: |date= (help)
• Kuvar, Sachin D.; & Bapat, U.C. (2010). "Medicinal plants used by Kokani tribals of Nasik district Maharashtra to cure cuts and wounds" (PDF). Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge 9 (1): 114–115.
• Sunit Suksamrarn, Narisara Suwannapoch, Natthachai Aunchai, Mayuso Kuno, Piniti Ratananukul, Rachada Haritakun, Chawewan Jansakul & Somsak Ruchirawat (2005-01). "Ziziphine N, O, P and Q, new antiplasmodial cyclopeptide alkaloids from Ziziphus oenoplia var. brunoniana". Tetrahedron 61 (5): 1175–1180. doi:10.1016/j.tet.2004.11.053. Check date values in: |date= (help)
• "Ziziphus oenoplia ". Ayurvedic medicinal plants. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
• "Ziziphus oenoplia ". GRIN taxonomy for plants. United States Department of Agriculture. 2010-08-19. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
• "Ziziphus oenoplia ". Myanmar Medicinal Plant Database. Retrieved 2010-11-02.
• "Ziziphus oenoplia ". Forestry Nepal. Retrieved 2015-11-10.