A glabrous, aromatic, slightly woody herb or small shrub up to 3 m tall; nodes swollen, sometimes purplish. Leaves decussately opposite; petiole 1—1.5 cm long; stipules small, subulate; blade oblong-lanceolate to elliptical or ovate-oblong, 8—29 cm x 3—13 cm, base cuneate, margin shallowly glandular-serrate, apex long acuminate, penninerved, bright green, glossy above. Inflorescence a terminal, peduncled panicle consisting of 5—13 spikes 2.5—5 cm long; bracts sheathing, ovate, acute; flowers much reduced, without perianth, bisexual; the male part a 3-lobed organ (fused stamens?) adnate to the upper half of the ovary, 1.2—1.6 mm long, with 3 anthers, median one 2-locellate, lateral ones 1-locellate, yellow, greenish-white or violet-white; the female part composed of a 1-locular ovary with a single ovule, partly enclosed by the male part, stigma subsessile, truncate. Fruit is a drupe, subglobose or ellipsoid, 5—7 mm in diameter, fleshy, white-cream or rarely tinged violet or pinkish, glossy. Seed is subglobose, yellow-white, minutely apiculate, narrow below, surrounded by a thin, fibrous endocarp; testa with lignified endotestal palisade cells.

Sudorific (leaves or roots); antifertility (juice from boiled branches); antispasmodic during childbirth (root extracts and bark).

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

To treat fever (leaves or roots); to cure venereal diseases (leaf extracts).