Kapanitulot
Justicia gendarussa · Willow-leaved justicia
- Names in the book
- Kapanitulot, Tag.; Bunlaw, Vis.
- Colours
- flowerwhite, purple
- Native range
- Tropical Asia
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Luzon, Mindanao, Panay.
- Family
- Acanthaceae, filed in the book under Acanthaceæ
- Printed as
- Justicia Gendarussa, L. (Gandarussa vulgaris, Nees.; Dianthera subserrata, Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 187 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Justicia gendarussa, commonly known as Willow-leaved justicia (Marathi: बाकस, bakas, काळा अडुळसा, kala adulasa; Sanskrit: कसनः, kasanah, वैध्यसिंहा, vaidyasinha), Lapsulis in Creole Seychelles; is a small erect, branched shrub. According to Plants of the World Online it is native to the Indian subcontinent (India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan), Indochina, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, the Philippines, and New Guinea, and has been introduced to Nepal, the western Himalayas, Pakistan, southern China including Hainan and Taiwan, eastern Africa, and the Mascarene Islands, Comoro Islands, and Seychelles.
Excerpt from “Justicia gendarussa” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 239 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 26 provinces, most often Zamboanga del Norte (28), Zamboanga del Sur (10), Leyte (8), Iloilo (6), Palawan (5), Albay (4), Antique (4), Agusan del Norte (3), and 18 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 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
In the Philippines this plant has the same applications as the Lagundi or Vitex, soon to be described. In India they give a decoction of the leaves for chronic rheumatism, the action probably being diaphoretic. The juice is employed for the coughs of childhood and externally as a resolvent for enlarged cervical glands. The bark of the young branches has a purplish color; in Java it is considered a good emetic.
Botanical description
A shrub 5–6° high, stem straight, branches smooth, obscurely 4-angled. Stems and leaves violet color, emitting a disagreeable odor (Blanco). Leaves opposite, lanceolate, acute, glabrous, obtusely serrate. Flowers terminal, white-green, in racemes of 3 sessile flowers with lanceolate bracts. Calyx, 5 long teeth. Corolla, short tube, 2-lipped, upper lip notched, lower lip broad with palate, ending in 3 lobules. Seed vessel with 4 seeds in its lower part.
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.
- Studies on Anticancer Effect of Methanolic Leaf Extract of Justicia gendarussa on Lung Cancer Cell Line
- Cardioprotective effect of Justicia gendarussa on doxorubicin induced toxicity in mice
- Phenolic Compounds of Justicia gendarussa Show Pharmacological Potentials Against Pain, Oxidation, Hyperglycemia, Diarrhea, and Microbes: Phytopharmacological and Computational Approaches