Botany
Kalayo is a shrub or small tree, with a compact, bushy crown. All parts are covered with hairs. Leaves are pinnate, 15 to 50 centimeters long, with 4 to 6 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets are narrowly elliptic, 7.5 to 18 centimeters long, 3 to 7 centimeters wide, and blunt on both ends. Flowers are very fragrant, white, about 5 millimeters wide, and arranged in small groups in upright panicles 12 to 30 centimeters long. Fruit is ovoid, in clusters, about 1 centimeter long and covered with fine hairs; in ripening it turns successfully yellow, orange, purple, and nearly black, and when ripe, with a thin, juicy, sweetish and slightly astringent pulp.

Distribution
- Common in forests at low and medium altitudes throughout the Philippines.
- Also occurs from northern India to Indo-China and Thailand, through Malaya to tropical Australia.

Constituents
- Study analyzed the essential oil from flowers and fruits. Major components of flower essential oil were nerolidol (34.8%), palmitic acid (13.2%), and farnesol (10.0%). Fruit essential oil yielded palmitic acid (66.1%), myristic acid (10.0%), and linolenic acid (5.5%). (See study below) (4)
- Methanolic fraction isolated a tetrasaccharide derivative of farnesol named rubiginoside along with known triterpenoid saponins. (5)
- Study of methanol extract of barks yielded alkaloids, flavonoids, phenols, saponins, and carbohydrates. Physiochemical evaluation showed moisture content of 8.07%, total ash value 18.00%, acid soluble ash value 21.00%, water soluble ash value 9.50^, alcohol soluble extractive value 1.00%, and water soluble extractive value of 0.50%. (see study below) (10)
- Study of ethanol extract of leaves isolated two new glycosides, lepisantheside A (1) and lepisantheside B (2), along with two known compounds acutoside A (3) and 3-O-[ß-D-xylopyranosyl-{1->3)-ß-D-glucopyranosyl-]-oleanolic acid (4), (see study above) (13)
- Study of ethyl acetate extract of plant yielded five compounds viz. lupeol, diosmetin, heptadecanoic acid, ß-sitosterol, and ß- sitosterol-3-O-ß-D-glucopyranoside. (14)

Properties
- Roots are astringent.
- Roots and leaves considered febrifugal.
- Studies suggest anti-inflammatory, membrane stabilizing, antioxidant, anticancer, antimicrobial, CNS depressant, anti-acetylcholinesterase inhibitory properties.

Parts used
Roots, leaves and seeds.

Uses
Edibility
- Fruit is edible, with a sub-acid astringent flavor; for some, not a pleasant edibility.
- In Java, shoots are used as vegetable.
Folkloric
- Astringent roots are used as decoction for fevers.
- Malays apply a poultice of leaves and roots to the head during a fever and to the body for skin problems.
- In the Dutch Indies, leaves are used for poulticing.
- In Indonesia, young stems eaten to induce sleeping.
- In Bangladesh, leaf juice taken for fever.
- In India, plant used for treatment of leprosy. (7)
- Decoction of seeds used for whooping cough.
- Used by the Nicobarese for abortion, contraception, and anti-fecundation. (15)
Others
- Wood: In some places considered a valuable timber; in other places, used as fuel and for making tool handles.

Studies
• Anti-Inflammatory / Membrane Stabilization: Study evaluated a methanol extract of Erioglossum rubiginosum in experimentally induced inflammation in a human red blood cell (HRBC) membrane stabilization method. Results showed significantly inhibited hypotonic solution induced lysis of human RBC membrane. The membrane stabilizing action and inhibition of erythrocyte lysis may be the possible mechanism of anti-inflammatory action. (3)
• Essential Oil of Fruits and Flowers / Antioxidant / Anticancer / Antimicrobial: Study analyzed Erioglossum rubiginosum fruits and flowers for essential oil. (See constituents above). In a study for anticancer activity against three human cancer cell lines, only the flower essential oil showed anticancer activity against NCI-H187 (small cell lung cancer). Flower essential oil also showed antioxidant activity. Both flower and fruit essential oils showed strong antimicrobial activity against Tricophyton mentagrophytes and moderate activity against E. coli, S. aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans. (4)
• CNS Depressant Effect / Fruit: Study of an aqueous extract of pericarp of fruits at intraperitoneal doses significant reduced spontaneous locomotor activity, increased thiopental-induced sleeping time and affinity toward dopaminergic receptors, inhibited apomorphine-induced climbing behavior in mice, and exhibited affinity toward D2 receptors, suggesting dopamine D2 antagonism. (8)
• Antimicrobial / Low Cytotoxicity / Bark: Study of methanol extract of bark showed significant antibacterial activity against gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus, gram-negative Salmonella typhi and Shigella dysenteriae and mild antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. Cytotoxicity evaluation by brine shrimp lethality bioassay showed very low cytotoxic property with LC50 value of 29.47 µg/ml compared to vincristine sulfate standard (0.451 µg/ml). (see constituents above) (10)
• Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitory Activity / Fruits: In a study of six aqueous fruit extracts from 19 analyzed fruits for potential acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, A. sapota showed the highest AChE inhibitory activity (IC50 1.17 mg/ml) followed by L. rubiginosa, F. elephantum, T. bispinosa, Z. jujuba and P. peruviana. (11)
• Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitory Activity / Leaves: Study evaluated ethanolic extract of leaves for antioxidant, analgesic, antihyperglycemic, neuropharmacological and antidiarrheal properties in mice. TLC analysis showed the presence of antioxidant compounds with IC50 of 31.62 µg/mL, compared to ascorbic acid with 12.02 µg/mL. In acetic acid and induced writhing, the extract showed 46.07% and 58.43% writhing inhibition. The extract showed significant (p<0.05) antihyperglycemic activity. In neuropharmacological evaluation, the animals showed a noticeable decrease in locomotion as evidenced by decrease in number of squared crossed and head dipping Extract showed 57.89% and 77.19% inhibition of defecation with doses of 250 and 500 mg/kg. compared to loperamide (3 mg/kg) 88.59% inhibition. (12)
• Cytotoxicity / Anticancer / Leaves: Study of leaves isolat4d two new glycosides along with two known compounds. Their cytotoxicity was tested against four human cancer cell lines: KB, HepG2, SK-LU-1, and MCF7. Compound 4 exhibited significant activity with IC50s of 9.57, 6.66, 6.97, and 18.32 µM, respectively. , compared with positive control ellipticine. (13)

Availability
Wild-crafted.

OTHER IMAGE SOURCE: / Photo / FRUITS / 'Gum Chum' in Thai, or Lepisanthes rubiginosa / © SWASH / Non-Commercial use / click on image to go see source page / The SWASH Times

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