Premna serratifolia (malbau)

Premna serratifolia is widely distributed along the coasts and islands of tropical and subtropical Asia, Africa, Australia and the Pacific.

Premna serratifolia (Image: Rogier de Kok)

Malbau is a shrub or small tree, sometimes creeping along the ground, and growing 1-10 m tall. It has green to brown bark which is smooth or scaly. The leaves are held opposite each other on the stem, and are 4-20 cm long and 3-16 cm wide. The leaf margins are smooth (or rarely serrated) and hairless, and the crushed leaves smell of cat's urine. The white flowers have five corolla lobes. The fruits are more-or-less spherical, 3-8 mm long, 3-5 mm wide, hairless, and black or dark red when mature.

Premna serratifolia is not considered to be threatened.

In Peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia, the young leaves are boiled and eaten as a vegetable. In various parts of Indonesia, an infusion of the leaves and roots is used against fevers and shortness of breath; women also eat the leaves in order to promote breast-milk production. In Indo-China, the leaves and roots are used in traditional medicine as a diuretic, stomachic and febrifuge. On Guam, in the Pacific Ocean, a tea made from the boiled bark is used to treat neuralgia. Premna serratifolia is one of several herbal ingredients of “Dasamula” (or “Dashamula”) used in the Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine.

Premna serratifolia contains alkaloids, iridoid glycosides and several diterpenoids. Recent laboratory research has been undertaken into the possible cardiac stimulant activity of bark and wood extracts.

Premna serratifolia can be propagated easily from cuttings, and hence it is used for hedges and as a street tree.

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership aims to save plant life world wide, focusing on plants under threat and those of most use in the future. Seeds are dried, packaged and stored at a sub-zero temperature in our seed bank vault.

Description of seeds: Average 1,000 seed weight = 1.53 g.
Number of seed collections stored in the Millennium Seed Bank: One.
Germination testing: Unsuccessful

Malbau is not cultivated at Kew, but is known to be in cultivation elsewhere in the world, for example as a shade tree.

Pressed and dried specimens of Premna serratifolia are held in the Herbarium, one of the behind-the-scenes areas of Kew. The details of some of these can be seen in the on-line Herbarium Catalogue. Samples of bark, root and a carved wooden elephant are held in the Economic Botany Collection.

Find out more at Kew:

Lamiaceae Team at Kew

The mint family (Lamiaceae)

Flora Zambesiaca - Key to Premna

External links:

Flora of China - Premna serratifolia

Aluka - Premna serratifolia

USDA GRIN Taxonomy for Plants - Premna serratifolia