Smilax glabra Roxb.

DeFilipps, Robert A. & Krupnick, Gary A., 2018, The medicinal plants of Myanmar, PhytoKeys 102, pp. 1-341 : 157-158

Smilax glabra Roxb.

Names.

Myanmar: katcho-gyi. English: glabrous greenbrier.

Range.

Eastern Asia - China to the Himalayas. In Myanmar, found in Bago, Mandalay, and Taninthayi.

Uses.

Root: Used to treat venereal diseases.

Notes.

In India fresh roots are decocted for sores and venereal diseases ( Jain and DeFilipps 1991). In China the aerial tuber, boiled in water, is used for abscesses, arthritis, boils, cystitis, diarrhea, dyspepsia, furuncles, lymphadenopathy, rheumatism, and syphilis; the rhizome is used to treat cancer, as well as for mercury poisoning, syphilis, and acute bacterial dysentery ( Duke and Ayensu 1985). This species’ usage is sometimes confused with another species, Smilax china . In East and Souteast Asia the rhizome of S. glabra is used as an antidote for mercury poisoning; also to treat gout, scrofula, frambesia, and menorrhagia; a decoction is given as a parturifacient; additionally, the tubers are imported to the Malay Peninsula for treating venereal diseases ( Perry 1980).

The plant is said to contain the antitumor hormones, beta-sitosterol and stigmasterol, and the tubers are nearly 70% starch; also, alcohol extracts contain a glucoside ( Duke and Ayensu 1985).

Reference.

Nordal (1963).