Uses of Lagundi (Vitex negundo)

Common names: Dangla (Ilokano); five-leaved chaste tree, horseshoe vitex.

Indications and preparations: Leaves and flowering tops decoction, syrup, tablets and capsules for coughs, colds, fever and asthma.

Family: Verbenaceae

Description: A shedding shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall, bark surface slightly rough, peeling off in papery flakes, pale reddish-brown. Leaflets 3-5, narrowly elliptical Fruit spherical to broadly egg-shaped, 3-6 mm long, purple or black when mature.

Ecological distribution: Found in humid places or along watercourses, in waste places and mixed open forest. Eastern Africa and Madagascar to Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Burma (Myanmar), Indo-China, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, throughout the Malesian region, east to the Palau Islands, the Caroline Islands and the Mariana Islands. Widely cultivated in Europe, Asia, North America and the West Indies.

Parts used: Leaves and flowering tops.

Traditional uses:

roots and leaves – for pain, bitter tonic, expectorant and diuretic;
sap from crushed leaves – for coughs and sore throat;
leaf decoction – for wounds, ulcers, aromatic baths, and internally to promote the flow of milk, to induce menstruation, against gastric colic, and against flatulence.
seeds – boiled and eaten to prevent the spread of toxins from poisonous bites of animals;
flowers – for diarrhea, cholera and liver disorders

Special precautions: Make sure to have the five-leaved varieties, as there are other varieties of lagundi.

Lagundi Syrup: A sweetened preparation from the leaves of Vitex negundo L.

Materials: cooking pot, ladle, cup strainer, medicine bottles, labels, lagundi leaves, sugar/honey, water.

Proportion: 1 cup chopped lagundi leaves to 1 cup water

Procedure:

1. In an uncovered pot, prepare a decoction of the lagundi leaves.
2. Cool and strain.
3. Measure the amount of decoction that you produced. One-third of this volume will be the amount of sugar/honey that you are going to use.
4. Add your sweetener, stirring gently. You may put the mixture back on the stove, with low heat, until all he sweetener is dissolved/blended with the mixture. This is your syrup.
5. Transfer the syrup into the sterilized medicine bottles. Seal and label properly.
6. Store your bottled lagundi syrup in a clean, cool, dry place away from light.

Further information in: de Padua,L.S., N. Bunyapraphatsara, R.H.M.J. Lemmens (Editors). 1999. Plant Resources of South East Asia 12(1) Medicinal and Poisonous Plants. Backhuys Publishers, Leiden, the Netherlands.771 pp.

Source:www.pcarrd.dost.gov.ph