Niyog-niyogan is found throughout the Philippines, in thickets and secondary forest. It occurs also in India to Malaya, and has been introduced in most tropical countries.
This is a large, climbing, woody shrub reaching a length of from 2 to 8 meters. The younger parts have a rusty appearance on account of brown hairs. The leaves are oblong to elliptic, 7 to 15 centimeters long, with pointed tip and rounded base, the flowers are fragrant, showy, first white and then red, reddish-purple, or orange, exhibiting all these different stages on one and the same flower stalk. The fruit is narrowly ellipsoid and 2.5 to 3 centimeters long, with five, sharp, longitudinal angles or wings. The seeds are pentagonal and black.
Niog-niogan is often planted as an ornamental for its flowers.
They say that an oil extracted from the seeds has purgative properties, that physiologically inactive substance resembling a sugar was isolated by alcohol extraction, that a gum which gave many of the reactions of an alkaloid was extracted from the seeds by water, and that 3.87 per cent of potassium sulphate was found. Barcelon analyzed the seeds and reported the presence of oleic and palmitic acids in the oil, in addition to sitosterol, m. p. 135 and isolated acetyl derivative, m. p. 125 from the saponifiable matter.
Dela Paz studied the effects of the drug on Ascaris lumbricoides in vitro and in intestines of dogs, and reported that Quisqualis indica is different from oil of chenopodium, which weakens and, in vitro and in dogs intestines. No indication has been noted in the experiments in vitro that would suggest that the drug might act as a vermifuge. Lefevre considers the fruit tonic and astringent.
Guerrero states that in the Philippines the fruit is used as a vermifuge. The plant is also used as a cough cure.
The leaves are used and are applied to the head in cases of headache. They appear to merely cool off the head and so ally the pain somewhat. The leaves are given in Amboina and India in a compound decoction for flatulent distension of abdomen. The leaves and fruit are reputed to be anthelmintic (4-5 seeds dose) and useful for nephritis.
According to Hooper and Kirtikar and Basu, in the Moluccas and in India the seeds are given with honey as an electuary for the expulsion of entozoa in children. Handbuty quotes Rumpf, who says that in Indo-China, the seeds are also used as an anthelmintic and for rickets of children. Regnault reports that the Chinese and Annamites use the seeds as a vermifuge. Stuart states that in China they are also given in cases of diarrhea and leucorrhoeal discharges of children, which likewise are frequently due to nematode infection. Nadkarni says that the ripe seeds are roasted and given in diarrhea and fever. Stuart adds that macerated in oil, the seeds are applied to parasitic skin diseases in China.
Source: http://www.en.wikipilipinas.org/index.php?title=Quisqualis_indica
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