Kastuli
Abelmoschus moschatus · Musk mallow
- Names in the book
- Kastuli, Kastio, Kastiogan, Dalupan, Tag.; Marikum, Dukum, Marukum, Marapoto, Vis.; Marsh Mallow, Eng.
- Colours
- floweryellowcentrepurple
- Native range
- Tropical Asia to northern Australia
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Common in all parts of the islands.
- Family
- Malvaceae, filed in the book under Malvaceæ
- Printed as
- Hibiscus Abelmoschus, L.
- Sources
- Page 45 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Abelmoschus moschatus is an aromatic and species of medicinal plant in the family Malvaceae native to Asia and Australia. It has many common names, including Abelmosk, ambrette, annual hibiscus, Bamia Moschata, Galu Gasturi, muskdana, musk mallow, musk okra, ornamental okra, rose mallow, tropical jewel hibiscus, and Yorka okra.
Excerpt from “Abelmoschus moschatus” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 96 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 8 provinces: Samar (5), Batanes (2), Davao del Sur (2), Sorsogon (2), Davao Oriental (1), Agusan del Sur (1), Metropolitan Manila (1), Misamis Occidental (1).
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
The bruised seeds emit an odor of musk, and for this reason the plant has received the name Kastuli, signifying musk in Sanscrit. They possess antispasmodic and stimulant properties, and the infusion is diuretic. Bonastre analyzed Kastuli seeds as follows:
[table omitted; see the source text]
The fixed oil is greenish-yellow, fluid, but gradually solidifying in the air. The crystalline material is white, of an agreeable odor, soluble in ether, where it crystallizes in rays, fusible at 35°. The odorous principle is a bright green, non-volatile liquid of the odor of musk.
Botanical description
A plant 5–6° high, the stem hairy and with few branches. Leaves heart-shaped, cleft at the base, with 5 large pointed lobes, serrate, pubescent. Petioles long with two awl-shaped stipules at the base, and a large violet spot in the axil. Calyx double; the outer sepals 8–9 in number, awl-shaped; the inner ones are larger and separate unequally when the flower expands. Both sets are deciduous. Corolla very large, yellow. Stamens very numerous, inserted around a column. One pistil. Five stigmas. Ovary very large, downy, ovoid, 5-angled, with 5 compartments, each containing many kidney-shaped seeds with numerous grooves concentric at the hilum.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Nephroprotective mechanisms of Ambrette (Abelmoschus moschatus Medik.) leaf extracts in adriamycin mediated acute kidney injury model of Wistar rats
- Efficacy and safety of Abelmoschus moschatus capsules combined with tripterygium glycoside tablets on diabetic nephropathy: A systematic review and meta-analysis
- New record of mungbean yellow mosaic India virus in Desmodium laxiflorum and association of bhendi yellow vein mosaic betasatellite in Abelmoschus moschatus in Andhra Pradesh, India