Ayapana
Ayapana triplinervis
- Names in the book
- Aya-pana, Sp.; Ayapana, Apana, Tag.; Ayapan, Indo-Eng.
- Colours
- flowerpink
- Native range
- Tropical South America
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Common in fields and gardens. Blooms in January.
- Family
- Asteraceae, filed in the book under Compositæ
- Printed as
- Eupatorium Ayapana, Vent.
- Sources
- Page 149 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Ayapana triplinervis (aya-pana, water hemp) is a tropical American shrub in the family Asteraceae. This plant has long slender leaves which are often used in traditional medicine. The flowers are pale pink and the thin, hairless stem is reddish in color.
Excerpt from “Ayapana triplinervis” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 8 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 3 provinces: Agusan del Norte (1), Metropolitan Manila (1), Surigao del Norte (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
A native plant of Brazil now naturalized and well known in the Philippines and many other tropical countries; it is called by its Brazilian name, Aya-pana, more or less modified. The entire plant is aromatic and its infusion has an agreeable, bitter taste. Its virtues have been much exaggerated, but it is certainly a good stimulant, diaphoretic and tonic. An infusion, 30 grams of the leaves to 1 liter of water, is given in dyspepsia, a small cup after each meal. In the island of Mauritius this infusion was widely used as a stimulant and aromatic in the cholera epidemics of 1854 and 1856.
It is used internally and locally for the bites of venomous snakes and insects. The leaf-juice is a good application for foul ulcers, as is also the decoction of the entire plant. “It appears probable that this plant has fallen into unmerited neglect.”—Pharm. of India.
Botanical description
An aromatic plant 3° high, leaves opposite, sessile, coherent at the base, lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers in racemose panicles. Common calyx cylindrical, of many imbricated, awl-shaped scales, the lower ones smaller; within are 20 or more hermaphrodite disk-flowers. Corollas are funnel-form, 5-lobed. Style a little longer than the stamens. Stigmas 2, long. Seed 1, quadrangular, with simple, downy, sessile pappus. Receptacle nude.
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.
- Augmented growth of Cd-stressed rice seedlings with the application of phytostimulating, root-colonizing, Cd-tolerant, leaf-endophytic fungi Colletotrichum spp. isolated from Eupatorium triplinerve
- Antinociceptive and anti-inflammatory activities of Ayapana triplinervis essential oil rich in thymohydroquinone dimethyl ether from Brazil
- Anti-inflammatory activity of 7-methoxycoumarin isolated from Ayapana triplinervis Vahl (Compositae) via inhibition of inflammatory mediators - In-vivo, in-vitro and in-silico studies