Santan

Description:

Santan is an erect and smooth ornamental shrub, growing to a height of 2 to 3 meters. Leaves are stalkless or on very short stalks, oblong, 5 to 9 centimeters long, heart-shaped or rounded at the base and blunt-tipped. Flowers are many, pink or red, and borne in terminal, stalkless or shortly stalked, hairy cymes. Calyx teeth are short and pointed. Corolla-tube is slender, 2.5 centimeters long; lobes are spreading and oblong, about half the length of the tube. Fruit is reddish, almost round, about 5 millimeters in diameter.

Notes:

In the Philippines, root decoction used as sedative in the treatment of nausea, hiccups, and loss of appetite.