Description
Medicinal Parts
The medicinal part is the plant's rhizome tuber.
Flower and Fruit
Four to 10 flowers are arranged in racemes on a long peduncle; the pedicles are 1.2 to 2.5 cm long. The 6 tepals are approximately 18 mm long, elongate, free and yellow. There are 6 stamens, and the ovary is inferior, 3-chambered, top-shaped and thickly pubescent. The fruit is a densely pubescent capsule approximately 12 mm long and split in the middle. The seeds are black and warty.
Leaves, Stem, and Root
The plant is a herbaceous perennial with 12 to 18 leaves that are 30 to 60 cm long, 2.4 to 4 cm wide, lanceolate, acuminate, firm with a ciliate margin and short hairs underneath. The leaves grow from a globose shoot, which has a diameter of 5 to 8 cm and is crowned with a ring of bristle-like hairs.
Habitat
Hypoxis rooperi is indigenous to South Africa.
Production
Bantu tulip is the fresh or dried rhizome tuber of Hypoxis rooperi. The plant is collected in the wild, cut and then dried in the sun.
Other Names
Bantu Tulip, Sterretjie
Actions & Pharmacology
Compounds
Lignans (3.5 to 4.5%): particularly hypoxoside (norlignan glucoside)
Steroids
sterols, including beta-sitosterol (ca. 0.2%), beta-sitosterol glucoside
Polysaccharides
starch
Effects
The phytosterols, which have not as yet been more closely identified (beta-sitosterol is possibly the chief active ingredient), are said to have anti-exudative effects in animal experiments. The positive effect of the drug on benign prostate hyperplasia (reduction of the residual urine volume, increase of the uroflow, improvement of subjectively experienced complaints) is explained by the phytosterols' inhibition of local prostaglandin synthase.
Indications & Usage
Unproven Uses
Used internally for micturition complaints resulting from benign prostate hyperplasia, cystitis (South Africa/decoction) and lung disease (Botswana). It is used externally as a vulnerary (Africa). Efficacy for these indications has not yet been proved.
Precautions & Adverse Reactions
No health hazards are known in conjunction with the proper administration of designated therapeutic dosages.
Dosage
Mode of Administration
Whole and cut drug preparations for internal and external use.
How Supplied
Commercially produced capsules.
