Origin

Jamaica

Folk medicinal uses

The leaves, chopped and mixed with fat or 'quailed' and rubbed with castor oil, provide a plaster for boils and bruises. For colds a decoction is taken and the leaves may be used as snuff to relieve a headache. As a tonic the stern is boiled with sarsaparilla, Morinda royoc, china root and Desmodium supinum. A root decoction, sometimes with Desmodium spp.. is used for pains and particularly for back pains. Similar use is made of the plant in Africa where it is also recommended for the treatment of gonorrhoea and rheumatic swelling.

Asprey, G.F; Phylis Thornton/ Medicinal plants of Jamaica. Parts I & II. – p. 29.