Timbangan
Aristolochia indica · Indian birthwort
- Names in the book
- Timbag̃an, Malaubi, Tag.; Indian Birthwort, Eng.
- Colours
- flowergreenish-white, purple
- Native range
- India and Sri Lanka
- In the Philippines, per the book
- In Luzon and Panay. Blooms in November.
- Family
- Aristolochiaceae, filed in the book under Aristolochiaceæ
- Printed as
- Aristolochia Indica, L.
- Sources
- Page 203 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The Philippine timbangan is now usually identified as Aristolochia tagala.
The plant today
Aristolochia indica (native language: Garudakkodi / Eswaramooli) is a creeper plant found in Southern India and also Sri Lanka. It Is known as 'sapsada' in Sri Lanka and is critical to the survival of the southern birdwing and common birdwing, as well as crimson and common rose butterflies. It reaches a height of several metres on trees and cover the branches with thick foliage. It is commonly found in forest floor, rocky hillslopes. It flowers once a year to produce seeds. It can also be propagated by roots. The plant has a number of historical medicinal uses.
Excerpt from “Aristolochia indica” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 1 record of this plant from the Philippines.
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 root has a wide use in medicine in the Philippines; it is bitter, of a nauseating odor and has the reputation of being a powerful antidote for the bites of poisonous serpents and insects. It has further use in the treatment of malarial fever, in dyspepsia, and in the flatulent colic of teething children. It is regarded as tonic and emmenagogue. In various forms of diarrhœa it appears to be effective and Dr. Gibson states that it is useful in intestinal disorders. In the Philippines it is not only given internally but also externally applied over the abdomen, mixed with hot cocoanut oil (10 grams of the powdered root to 100 oil).
The first Portuguese settlers in India called the drug “Cobra Root,” because the natives regarded it as an antidote for the bite of the terrible “Cobra da Capello.” This reputation, however, seems not to have been deserved, judging from the fearful mortality in India and Ceylon due to the bite of the cobra.
Dr. Imlach, a surgeon of Singapore, states that in one season in one collectorate, Shikapore, no less than 306 cases of snake bites were officially reported, the mortality being 63, or about 20.58 per cent. Other reports make it safe to conclude that in the entire province during the year no less than 300 deaths were due to this cause alone. Dr. Waring believes that if an antidote for snake bite exist in the vegetable kingdom it will most probably be found in the natural order Aristolochiaceæ.
In North India this drug is used as emmenagogue and anti-arthritic, and in Banda for intermittent fevers and intestinal disorders. The juice of the leaves is emetic. The dose of the powdered root is 3–5 grams daily.
Botanical description
A twining shrub, with leaves heart-shaped, ovate, acute, glabrous. Petioles short. Flowers dark reddish-gray, in panicles. Calyx wanting. Corolla globose below, the tube cylindrical, expanding at the top. Anthers 6, in pairs. Filaments, none. Styles 6, very coarse, a membrane at the base including all. Stigmas simple. Seed vessel inferior, 6-ribbed, 6 cells and many winged seeds. The seed vessel after casting the seeds resembles a pair of balance scales with its little plates or pans. Hence the Tagalo name Timbag̃an meaning “balance.”
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.
All 1 results on Europe PMC