Botany
Sabilau is a succulent, slender, prostrate, somewhat branched, smooth herb. Stems are about 5 millimeters thick, 20 to 40 centimeters long, rooting at the nodes. Leaves are sessile, lanceolate, 4 to 11 centimeters long, 6 to 12 millimeters wide. Flowers are 3 to 6 in each leaf-axil, opening one at a time, with small bracteoles, and not imbricated. Calyx is pale-greenish. Corolla is bluish or purplish, with long-clawed petals; the limb 5 to 6 millimeters long. Capsules are long-beaked. Seeds are oblong, compressed or ventrally concave, brown, shining and shallowly pitted.

Distribution
- Commonly found from northern Luzon to Palawan and Mindanao, in most islands and provinces, In clearings, open places along streams, rice paddies, etc, at low and medium altitudes.
- Also occurs in India to China and through Malaya to Australia.

Constituents
- Study isolated a new type of spirobisnaphthalene with a previously unknown skeletal system, Spiroaxillarone A. (see study below) (6)

Properties
- Traditionally considered febrifuge, anti-inflammatory, and antiparasitic.
- Study has shown antifungal and antimalarial properties.

Parts used
Whole plant.

Uses
Edibility
- In India leaves cooked as vegetable for tympanitis.
Folkloric
- In the Malabar Coast, used as a remedy for tympanitis.
- External applications used in ascites and abscesses.
- Used as abortifacient in combination with other plants.
- Decoction of whole plant used in swellings above the abdomen.
- In India, roots and tubers used for fever and worms. Warm leaf juice used as ear drops to relieve eardrum inflammation.
- Irulu tribes of Western Ghats, India, use leaves, raw or in decoction, for swelling. Used for chest pains in herbal combination with Alpinia galanga, Curculio orchids, Cleome monophylla and Terminalis bellerica.
- In Thailand, decoction used to treat cirrhosis. Decoction of whole plant drunk to treat aphthous ulcers. (8)
Others
- Fodder: Used as food for pigs.

Studies
• Antifungal: Study evaluated different solvent extracts of dried whole plant of Cyanotis axillaris for antifungal activities against 12 opportunistic fungal strains. Hexane, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts showed significant antifungal activities. Highest antifungal activity was seen with the EA extract with zone of inhibition >30 mm against C. krusei. (5)
• Antimalarial / Spiroaxillarone A: Spiroaxillarone A (1) was isolated from Cyanotis axillaris. The compound exhibited significant antimalarial activity against resistant Plasmodium falciparum (IC50=2.32 µM). (6)
• Allelopathic / Growth Inhibitory Potential: Study evaluated the allelopathic potential of C. axillaris as biologicla option to control weeds. The aqueous methanol extracts were applied on growth on four docotyledonous grass (cress, lettuce, alfalfa and rapeseed) and four monocotylodonous (barnyard grass, Italian ryegrass, timothy snd foxtail fescue) plant species. The extracts inhibited the shoot and root growth of all test plant species. Inhibition increased with concentration. At 0.3 g dry weight equivalent extract/ml, cress, lettuce, alfalfa and rapesseed showed complete growth inhibition. Results suggest C. axillaris may have allelopathic activity and may contain growth inhibitory substances. and can be a potential candidate for development of an environmental-friendly bio-herbicide for weed control. (7)

Availability
- Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Cyanotis axillaris (L.) D. Don ex Sweet / Chinese names / Catalogue of Life, China
(2)
A Survey of Ethnomedicinal Plants used by the tribals of Ajoydha Hill Region, Purulia District, India / Abhijit Dey and Dr Jitendra Nath De / American-Eurasian Journal of Sustainable Agriculture, 4(3): 280-290, 2010
(3)
Cyanotis axillaris / Synonyms / The Plant List
(4)
Ethnomedicinal assessment of Irula tribes of Walayar valley of Southern Western Ghats, India / Arjunan Benkatachalapathi et al / Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences / https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2016.10.011
(5)
ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY OF CYANOTIS AXILLARIS (L.) D. DON EX SWEET AGAINST OPPORTUNISTIC FUNGAL STRAINS / R Anto Suganya, Jeya Jothi Gabriel / International Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, July 2017; 9(7):140 / DOI: 10.22159/ijpps.2017v9i7.18868
(6)
Spiroaxillarone A, a Symmetric Spirobisnahthalene with an Original Skeleton from Cyanotis axillaris / Awat Wisetsai,, Florian T Schevenels et al / Org. Lett., 3029; 21(20): pp 8344-8348 / DOI: 10.1021/acs.orglett.9b03122
(7)
Evaluation of allelopathic potential of Cyanotis axillaris (L.) / Zaman Farhana, Kato-Noguchi Hisashi / Research on Crops, 2017; 18(4): pp 773-778 / DOI: 10.5958/2348-7542.2017.00127.9 / pISSN: 0972-3226 / eISSN: 2348-7542
(8)
A survey of herbal weeds that are used to treatgastrointestinal disorders from southern Thailand: Krabi and Songkhla provinces / Oratai Neamsuvam, Thamakorm Ruangrit / Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 10`7; Vol 209: pp 318-327 / DOI: 10.1016/j.jep.2017.06.039

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