Sinampaga
Catunaregam spinosa · Mountain pomegranate
- Names in the book
- Sinampaga, Tag.
- Used for
- Diarrhea and dysentery
- Colours
- flowerwhite, yellowfruityellow
- Native range
- South and Southeast Asia
- In the Philippines, per the book
- On the coast of Luzon. Blooms in May.
- Family
- Rubiaceae, filed in the book under Rubiaceæ
- Printed as
- Randia dumetorum, Lam. (R. longispina, DC.; R. aculata, Blanco; R. stipulosa, Miq.; Gardenia spinosa, Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 142 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Catunaregam spinosa, the mountain pomegranate, is a flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae, found in South Asia and other Asian countries. Almost all parts of the plant are used as a traditional medicine in Ayurveda and fruits have been reported to be used in medicine as well as in food. Various flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, lignans, terpenoids, and volatile oils have been reported from this plant. Several studies have reported the modern pharmaceutical activities of C. spinosa such as piscicidal, molluscicidal, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, and antihyperlipidemic activities
Excerpt from “Catunaregam spinosa” 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 fruit is used in some parts of India to kill the fish in ponds and sluggish rivers, the same use to which they sometimes put the “Cocculus Indicus.” It is prescribed as an emetic by the Sanscrit and Arabic medical authors of India. Mooden Sheriff ascribes its emetic properties to the pulp alone, the epicarp and seeds being inactive according to his authority. It is a substitute for ipecac even in the treatment of dysentery in which case the decoction of the trunk bark is also used.
The dried and powdered pulp is given in dose of 2.50 grams as an emetic and 1–2 grams as an antidysenteric. To prepare the fresh fruit for administration as an emetic, mash 2–3, macerate 15 minutes in 150–200 grams of water and filter. It acts in a few minutes and its effect may be hastened by giving tepid water or tickling the fauces.
Botanical description
A shrub with straight, thorny stem, leaves sessile, springing from the buds, occurring in threes, obtusely lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers solitary or in pairs, very fragrant. Calyx gamosepalous with 10 toothlets. Corolla twisted, arched, cleft in the middle, throat nude, limb slashed in 5 large glabrous parts. Stamens 5. Filaments short, inserted on corolla. Style 1. Stigma bifid. Fruit inferior, about the size of a crab apple, crowned by the remains of the calyx, smooth, yellow, fleshy, 1-celled with many seeds.
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.
- In silico molecular docking and dynamic simulation of anti-cholinesterase compounds from the extract of Catunaregam spinosa for possible treatment of Alzheimer's disease
- Isolation & identification of anti-inflammatory constituents of Randia dumetorum lamk. fruit: Potential beneficial effects against acute lung injury
- Green synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles using Catunaregam spinosa (Thunb.) triveng for biologicals applications