Kamantigi
Impatiens balsamina · Garden balsam
- Names in the book
- English: Touch me not balsam; Tagalog: Kamantigui; Visayan: Solong, Suranga
- Colours
- flowerpink, red, white, purple
- Native range
- South Asia and Myanmar
- Family
- Balsaminaceae
- Printed as
- Impatiens balsamina L.
- Sources
- Healing Wonders of Herbs (1985), page 90 · Wikipedia
The plant today
Impatiens balsamina, commonly known as balsam, garden balsam, rose balsam, touch-me-not or spotted snapweed, is a species of plant native to India and Myanmar. It is an annual plant growing to 20–75 cm (7.9–29.5 in) tall, with a thick, but soft stem. The leaves are spirally-arranged, 2.5–9 cm (1.0–3.5 in) long and 1–2.5 cm broad, with a deeply toothed margin. The flowers are pink, red, mauve, purple, lilac, or white, and 2.5–5 cm diameter; they are pollinated by bees and other insects, and also by nectar-feeding birds. The ripe seed capsules undergo explosive dehiscence.
Excerpt from “Impatiens balsamina” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 116 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 23 provinces, most often Rizal (17), Davao del Sur (15), Cebu (6), Negros Occidental (6), Cavite (4), Davao Oriental (4), Agusan del Norte (3), Aklan (3), and 15 more.
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 1985 book uses it for
A record of home remedies from 1985, with the book's amounts and doses reworded. It is not medical advice.
- Athlete's footChopped flowers as a poultice.Apply after the makabuhay foot bath.Page 15
- RingwormCrushed flowers as a compress.Crush 5 to 10 flowers, by the size of the patch, until the juice runs. Leave on for 30 minutes, twice a day.Page 36
- Snake bitesCrushed flowers as a poultice after first aid.Crush about 10 flowers. Apply only after the wound has been bled, on the way to a hospital.Page 39
- Sprained ankle or wristPounded stems and leaves as a poultice.Pound 2 stems with their leaves. Bandage in place for 30 minutes, three times a day.Page 40
Summarised from Herminia de Guzman-Ladion, Healing Wonders of Herbs (Manila: Philippine Publishing House, 1985), where this plant is shown as “Kamantigui” on page 90. The book is in copyright, so its wording and photographs are not reproduced. Amounts are the book's, restated.
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.
- Impatiens balsamina: An updated review on the ethnobotanical uses, phytochemistry, and pharmacological activity
- At-Line LC-QTOF-ESI-MS/MS Fractionation of Impatiens balsamina Linn. Coupled With a Simple DPPH for Rapid Identification and Guided Isolation of Antioxidant
- Antioxidant Activities and Lipid Accumulation-Inhibitory Effects of Seed and Callus Extracts of Impatiens balsamina L