A shrub that grows to a height of 3m. Bark is pale yellowish-brown. Inner bark is pale yellow. Stems are terete, glabrous, and 2mm in diameter. Leaves are compound, spiral, and exstipulate. Rachis shows 7–9 pairs of folioles which are asymmetrical, membranaceous, and 9.8cm × 3.5cm – 10.4cm × 3.7cm – 6.5cm × 2.4cm – 8cm × 2cm. Petiolules are 5mm long. Blade shows several oil cells, and nine pairs of secondary nerves. Margin of the foliole is wavy, base is asymmetrical, and apex is acuminate. Inflorescences are panicles of little greenish-white flowers which are stellate, and strongly and sweetly scented. Fruits are elliptic, 7mm × 5mm, yellowish, turning red, and marked at the apex by a vestigial disc.

Used as a general tonic (leaves); febrifuge (leaves and roots); carminative (root).

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

Used to calm itchiness, to mitigate headaches and to promote menses (leaves); to cure toothache (roots); to treat diarrhea (decoction or infusion of roots); applied externally to treat ague (root paste or poultice of boiled roots); heated with oil and used as a medicine for infantile convulsions; for treating headache and stomach-ache, to cure coughs and a sore tongue, to arrest profuse menstruation, to treat gonorrhoea, and as a remedy for thrush (leaves or inner bark of the twigs).

Christophe Wiart. Medicinal Plants of Asia and the Pacific, P:223-224, CRC Press, June 2006