Alocasia macrorrhizos

Dublin Core

Title

Alocasia macrorrhizos

Subject

Taxonomy
Phylum   :Tracheophyta
Class      :Liliopsida
Order     :Alismatales
Family    :Araceae
Genus    :Alocasia
Species  :Alocasia macrorrhizos

Synonyms
Alocasia cordifolia (Bory) Cordem., Alocasia grandis N.E.Br. [Illegitimate], Alocasia indica (Lour.) Spach, Alocasia marginata N.E.Br., Alocasia metallica Schott, Alocasia montana (Roxb.) Schott, Alocasia pallida K.Koch & C.D.Bouché, Alocasia plumbea Van Houtte, Alocasia rapiformis (Roxb.) Schott, Alocasia uhinkii Engl. & K.Krause, Alocasia variegata K.Koch & C.D.Bouché, Arum cordifolium Bory, Arum indicum Lour., Arum macrorrhizon L., Arum montanum Roxb., Arum mucronatum Lam., Arum peregrinum L., Arum rapiforme Roxb., Caladium indicum K.Koch [Invalid], Caladium macrorrhizon (L.) R.Br., Caladium metallicum Engl., Caladium odoratum Lodd., Caladium plumbeum K.Koch [Invalid], Calla badian Blanco, Calla maxima Blanco, Colocasia boryi Kunth, Colocasia indica (Lour.) Kunth, Colocasia macrorrhizos (L.) Schott, Colocasia montana (Roxb.) Kunth, Colocasia mucronata (Lam.) Kunth, Colocasia peregrina (L.) Raf., Colocasia rapiformis (Roxb.) Kunth, Philodendron peregrinum (L.) Kunth, Philodendron punctatum Kunth

Common name
Birah negeri, keladi sebaring, keladi sebarang, birah, giant taro, giant alocasia, elephant ear , large taro, roasting coco , Australian cabbage, bg-rooted taro, Indomalayan alocasia, kopeh root, Kuanyin lotus, spoon lily, taro, wild coco, wild taro

Description

Characteristics
A very large herb that can reach up to 400 cm tall with erect or decumbent stem.

Morphology

Leaves
Not peltate with a size of 80 cm x 60 cm. The petiole is up to 130 cm long but not mottled. The spadix is 13-20 cm long.

Plant part used
Leaves, tuber and roots

Traditional uses
  • Leaves are traditionally used as astringent, styptic and antitumour.
  • The root and leaf is used as rubefacient.
  • A decoction of the leaf and stem is used in a bath for treatment of skin conditions like itching and burns.
  • A poultice of the fresh leaves helps in improving circulation, prevent bursting and reduce pain attributed to varicose veins.
  • The steamed oiled leaves can help relieve rheumatic pains by applied around painful joints overnight.
  • Toasted, powdered leave speed up wound healing.
  • A. macrorrhiza tuber is used to treat influenza, high fever and malaria, diarrhoea, typhoid fever, rheumatic, pulmonary tuberculosis and tuberculous lymphadenopathy, headache, abscesses, ringworm, leucorrhoea, and venomous bites of snakes, dogs and insects. It can be eaten after being put through a detoxifying process where the oxalate content is eliminated. The process of detoxifying can be apply by soaked the slice of tuber in water for 7 days with the water being changed daily. This is then dried and ready for use.
  • A. macrorrhiza rootstock is considered mild laxative and diuretic and been used in inflammations and diseases of the abdomen and spleen.
  • It also has used in the treatment of scorpion sting amongst the Indian traditional practitioners.

Medicinal uses

  • It was found that the edible parts of A. macrorrhiza exhibit potent antioxidant activity and this is especially seen in the diethyl ether extract.
  • Another study showed that the hydroalcoholic extract of the leaves showed potent antioxidant activities as demonstrated in various antioxidant models of screening.
  • Ethanol extract of A. indica leaves possesses potent antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities in a dose dependent manner. This is probably attributed to the antioxidant activities detected in this extract.
  • Hydroalcoholic extracts of A. indica leaves administrated orally was found to effectively inhibit CCl4 and paracetamol induced liver damage.
  • A. macrorrhiza tuber was found to contain a trypsin/chymotrypsin inhibitor specifically inhibited human trypsin but not human chymotrypsin.
  • The lectin of A. macrorrhiza was found to have mitogenic potentials towards human peripheral blood lymphocytes.
  • The lectins were found to be T-cell mitogens and do not indue DNA synthesis in B-enriched lymphocytes. The proliferation kinetic studies showed maximum incorporation on day 3 and the mitogenic response was inhibited by asialofetuin in a dose dependent manner.

List of country
Malaysia and Oceania

Creator

Alocasia macrorrhizos (Linnaeus,1753)

Publisher

Nur Athirah Roshaizi

Contributor

Nur Athirah Roshaizi

Language

English

Collection

Kingdom Plantae

Citation

Alocasia macrorrhizos (Linnaeus,1753), “Alocasia macrorrhizos,” BIDARA, accessed February 4, 2026, https://bidara.uthm.edu.my/items/show/392.

Output Formats

Geolocation