Malabar nut
Justicia adhatoda
- Names in the book
- The book records no Philippine name for this plant.
- Names from other sources
- None found. PROSEA gives names from neighbouring countries but none from the Philippines.
- Used for
- Cough and asthma
- Colours
- flowerwhite, purple
- Native range
- Indian subcontinent
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Luzon and Panay.
- Family
- Acanthaceae, filed in the book under Acanthaceæ
- Printed as
- Adhatoda vasica, Nees. (Justicia Adhatoda, L.)
- Sources
- Page 188 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Justicia adhatoda commonly known in English as Malabar nut, adulsa, adhatoda, vasa, vasaka, is native to Asia. Adathoda means 'untouched by goats' in Tamil. The name derives from the fact that animals like goats do not eat this plant due to its extreme bitter taste. The plant's native range is Afghanistan, the Indian subcontinent (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka), Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. It has been introduced elsewhere. It is used as a traditional medicinal plant.
Excerpt from “Justicia adhatoda” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds no records of this plant from the Philippines.
Checked against GBIF occurrence records, October 2026.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
The Filipinos are but slightly familiar with this plant and it has no place in their therapeutical armamentarium. In India, however, it is very common and enjoys much reputation in the treatment of catarrhs, the grip, asthma and non-febrile, especially chronic, bronchial affections. The flowers, leaves and roots, but especially the flowers, possess antispasmodic properties and are prescribed in certain forms of asthma; they are bitter and slightly aromatic, and are given in infusion or electuary.
Drs. Jackson and Dott have testified from their own experience to the usefulness of the drug in chronic bronchitis, asthma and afebrile catarrh. Dr. Watt states that the natives of Bengal find relief for asthma in smoking the leaves. In Bombay its expectorant action is commonly known and its juice is used, mixed with borax and honey.
The dose of the aqueous extract made by evaporating the juice of the leaves, is .25–1 gram. The tincture is preferable, made by dissolving this extract in alcohol; dose 2–4 grams. Its efficiency is increased by the addition of pepper seeds (Waring). The Sanscrit writers recommend for cough, 3.80 grams of the leaf juice with honey. “It is very desirable that further trials be made to test the value of this remedy.”—Pharmacopœia of India.
Botanical description
A shrub with straight, smooth, ashy-gray trunk. Branches of same color but smoother. Leaves opposite, lanceolate, acute, smooth on both faces, 12–15 cm. long by 3–4 broad, petioles short. Flowers irregular and hermaphrodite in axillary spikes with long peduncles, opposite, large, white, covered with rusty spots, the lower part of the 2 lips purple. Calyx gamosepalous, regular, five deep clefts. Corolla gamopetalous, irregular, short tube, limb 2-lipped, the lower lip ending in a spur. Ovary free, 2-celled, each cell containing 2 ovules. Style filiform, long, inserted in a sort of canal formed by the upper lip of the corolla. Stigma bilobulate. Seed vessel depressed, 4 flattened, lenticular 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.
- Green synthesis of ZnO nanoparticles using Justicia adhatoda for photocatalytic degradation of malachite green and reduction of 4-nitrophenol
- In Vitro Anticancer Activity of Methanolic Extract of Justicia adhatoda Leaves with Special Emphasis on Human Breast Cancer Cell Line
- Computer Aided Drug Design Approach to Screen Phytoconstituents of Adhatoda vasica as Potential Inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 Main Protease Enzyme