Melastoma malabathricum (L.) Smith Ethnomedicinal Uses, Chemical Constituents, and Pharmacological Properties: A Review

Table 2

(a) Medicinal uses of M. malabathricum according to its part. (b) Medicinal uses of M. malabathricum according to several communities/tribes reported around the world.

(a)

Plant parts	Medicinal uses	Reference
Leaves	Leaves are chewed up, pounded, and applied as paste on cuts or wounds or finely chopped up and squeezed to apply the juice onto the wound to stop bleeding	Latiff and Zakri [29]; Jaganath and Ng [25]; Zakaria et al. [30]
	Leaves are used to prevent scarring from smallpox, to treat dysentery, diarrhoea, piles, and as a tonic	Sharma et al. [11]
	Young leaves are eaten to treat diarrhea	Jaganath and Ng [25]
	Young premature leaves are consumed raw to cure dysentery	Sajem and Gosai [31]
	Leaves are also useful to treat ulcers, gastric ulcers, scar, pimple, and black spot at skin	Lohézic-Le Dévéhat et al. [32]
	Combination of leaves and roots in powder form is applied to wounds and pox scars to aid the healing process or used to relieve the discomfort of hemorrhoids	Burkill [24]; Fazlin et al. [7]
	Powdered leaves alone is used as astringent for dysentery	Umali-Stuart and Stiuart-Santiago [9]
	Juice of leaves and roots is used as a digestive aid	Umali-Stuart and Stiuart-Santiago [9]
	Combination of leaves and flowers is used in the treatment of cholera, diarrhoea, prolonged fever, dysentery, leucorrhoea, wounds, and skin diseases and for the preparation of gargles	Perry [36]; Burkill [24]; Koay [23]; Sharma et al. [11]
	Combination of leaves and flowers is used as astringent in leukorrhea and chronic diarrhea	Umali-Stuart and Stiuart-Santiago [9]
Shoots	Shoots are ingested to treat puerperal infections, high blood pressure, and diabetes	Burkill [24]; Koay [23]
	Juice of shoots is used as a mouthwash to relieve a toothache or to treat leukorrhea
Roots	Roots are used as mouthwash to relieve a toothache and to treat epilepsy	Burkill [24]; Jaganath and Ng [25]; Lohézic-Le Dévéhat et al. [32]
	Roots are given to postpartum women to aid healing and womb strengthening	Fazlin et al. [7]; Jaganath and Ng [25]; Zakaria et al. [30]
	Roots are used to alleviate rheumatism, arthritis, and tenderness in the legs	Burkill [24]; Koay [23]
	Decoction of roots is used to treat diarrhea	Lin [33]
	Juice of roots is applied to lessen the soreness due to thrush in children	Burkill [24]; Koay [23]
	Combination of roots and leaves in a form of decoction or roots alone are used to tone up the uterus after childbirth in order to strengthen the womb and accelerate wound healing, reduce excessive menstrual bleeding and cramps, relieve postmenstrual syndrome, stomach ache, and white discharge, and enhance fertility	Koay [23]
Barks	Barks are useful for the treatment of various skin diseases	Jain and De Filipps [34]
Flowers	Flowers are used to treat cancer	Mohandoss and Ravindran [35]
	Flowers are used as a nervous sedative and for hemorrhoidal bleeding	Umali-Stuart and Stiuart-Santiago [9]
	Combination of flowers, seeds, and leaves is used to reduce white vaginal discharge and indigestion	Jaganath and Ng [25]

(b)

Communities/tribes	Country	Medicinal uses	Reference
Gayo and Alas	Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia	The cold infusion of M. malabthricum flowers is an optional ingredient added to an oral remedy for anaemia associated with gastrointestinal bleeding and epigastric pain	Elliott and Brimacombe [37]
Talang Mamak	Riau, Sumatra, Indonesia	The ground leaves are applied as a compress to cuts and wounds	Grosvenor et al. [8]
Malay	Machang, Kelantan, Malaysia	The fruit juice is applied on dry lips	Ong and Nordiana [38]
	Gemenceh, Negri Sembilan, Malaysia	The pounded leaves are applied onto wounds to accelerate healing	Ong and Nordiana [39]
Jah Hut	Jerantut, Pahang, Malaysia	The roots are applied as decoction to treat diarrhea	Lin [33]
Lakher and Pawi	Mizoram, India	The decoction of the leaves or its juice is taken orally to treat diarrhoea and dysentery	Sharma et al. [11]
Meitei	Manipur and Mayurbhanj, Orissa, India	The bark and leaves are used for treating skin troubles, leukorrhea, diarrhea, and dysentry	Thatoi et al. [14]
Didayi	Malkangiri, Orissa, India	The leaves are applied externally as paste to treat cuts and wounds	Pattanaik et al. [13]
Sundanese	Bogor, West Java, Indonesia	The leaves is used as topical application or oral ingestion to treat toothache and for postpartum remedy	Roosita et al. [40]
Marmas	Bandarban, Bangladesh	The root juice is used to treat jaundice	Rahmatullah et al. [18]
Garo	Netrakona, Bangaldesh	The leaf juice is used as a diuretic and to treat various urinary problems	Rahmatullah et al. [19]
Murong	Rangamati, Bangladesh	The root juice or water extract of boiled roots are used orally to treat leukorrhea	Rahmatullah et al. [20]
Naga	Manipur, India	The fresh and dry leaves are used to treat cuts and wounds, stomach disorder, and fever	Ringmichon et al. [15]
	Tahiti	The plant is used to treat diarrhea and dysentery with its bark decoction used as gargle	Umali-Stuart and Stiuart-Santiago [9]