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| Premna serrativeolia or Wahong |
Premna serrativeolia or Wahong Tree and also known as Wahong Gunung is a shrub with many branches and sometimes thorns or a small tree with a low canopy and branches often reproduce and root in the ground up to 10 meters high. The stems can be very short, reaching up to 30cm in diameter.
The leaves are edible and collected from nature for local use, and sometimes sold in local markets.
The Wahong or Wahong Gunung plant also provides medicines, fiber, and wood for local use which are often used as Bonsai. Sometimes it is also planted on the fence.
CHARACTER OF WAHONG TREE
Wahong trees are often found in mixed and open forests on mountain slopes and along streams at an altitude of 100 - 300 meters in southern China or found in the wild on sandy and limestone soils.
All plants have a pleasant aromatic smell. Besides that, Wahong plants can also flower and produce fruit all year round, on the other hand, Wahong is also useful for restoring regrowth of forests, shrubs and hedges, often also found near the sea.
USES AND BENEFITS OF WAHONG TREE
- Wahong leaves can be cooked and eaten as a vegetable. Has a slightly sour taste
- The seeds are sometimes eaten by children
- Ripe fruit is sometimes eaten with sweet potatoes in the Pacific
BENEFITS OF WAHONG TREE MEDICINE
- The leaves and roots are used in traditional medicine as a diuretic, stomach ache and febrifuge
- The root has a warm bitter taste and pleasant smell, it is prescribed in decoctions as a gentle remedy and a stomach in fever
- The leaves are used as a galactagogue, and also to treat rheumatic arthritis, colic and flatulence, coughs, headaches and fever.
- The leaves, combined with noni leaves, are squeezed into water and a solution, taken twice a day to treat severe malarial fever.
- Steam baths made of young leaves and stems are inhaled as a treatment for fever. The cooled solution is then used to bathe the body
- The leaves are boiled into a medicinal tea which is known to have analgesic effects. This home remedy is mostly used for the treatment of back pain
- Tea made from boiled bark is used to treat neuralgia.
OTHER USES OF WAHONG TREE
- The bark is used as a binding agent
- The leaves and roots are used to scent coconut oil
- The root bark of this plant produces a yellowish-brown powder that produces an orange-brown tincture with alcohol
- The wood is light beige brown. It smells good, the veins are beautiful, tightly grained, very hard and durable, although it can be complicated and often bent, It is widely used in traditional construction and also for the handles of tools and knives, tools and oars
- The wood is used as fuel and also to make fire through friction
