''Senecio scandens'', also known as climbing Senecio, is a climber in the family

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

that is native to

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...

and the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

.Senecio scandens
Useful Tropical Plants Database. Retrieved 12 December 2023.

Description

Featuring a rhizomatous rootstock, it is a 2-5 metres long evergreen climber that produces slender, scrambling, multibranched woody stems. Frost-tender, it produces yellow daisy-like flowers which are borne in autumn.

Distribution

The plant is native to China, southern Japan, Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia (

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

), Philippines. It is found in forests, brushwood, shrublands, rocks, near buildings, watercourses, on elevations from sea level to 4,000 metres at the highest.

Medicinal usage

The plant is used as a medicinal herb in China, where it is a constituent of more than 100 herbal medicines. The plant contains

pyrrolizidine alkaloid Pyrrolizidine alkaloids (PAs), sometimes referred to as necine bases, are a group of naturally occurring alkaloids based on the structure of pyrrolizidine. Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are produced by plants as a defense mechanism against insect he ...

s. Furthermore, many compounds are present, such as

flavonoids Flavonoids (or bioflavonoids; from the Latin word ''flavus'', meaning yellow, their color in nature) are a class of polyphenolic secondary metabolites found in plants, and thus commonly consumed in the diets of humans. Chemically, flavonoids ...

alkaloids Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar st ...

phenolic acids Phenolic acids or phenolcarboxylic acids are types of aromatic acid compounds. Included in that class are substances containing a phenolic ring and an organic carboxylic acid function (C6-C1 skeleton). Two important naturally occurring types of p ...

, terpenes,

volatile oils An essential oil is a concentrated hydrophobic liquid containing Volatility (chemistry), volatile (easily evaporated at normal temperatures) chemical compounds from plants. Essential oils are also known as volatile oils, ethereal oils, aetherol ...

and carotenoids, in addition to anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, anti-

leptospirosis Leptospirosis is a blood infection caused by the bacteria ''Leptospira''. Signs and symptoms can range from none to mild (headaches, muscle pains, and fevers) to severe ( bleeding in the lungs or meningitis). Weil's disease, the acute, severe ...

hepatoprotective Hepatoprotection or antihepatotoxicity is the ability of a chemical substance to prevent damage to the liver. This is opposite to hepatotoxicity. Hepatoprotective molecules used in emergency medicine * Acetylcysteine is considered the hepatopro ...

antioxidant Antioxidants are compounds that inhibit oxidation, a chemical reaction that can produce free radicals. This can lead to polymerization and other chain reactions. They are frequently added to industrial products, such as fuels and lubricant ...

antiviral Antiviral drugs are a class of medication used for treating viral infections. Most antivirals target specific viruses, while a broad-spectrum antiviral is effective against a wide range of viruses. Unlike most antibiotics, antiviral drugs do no ...

, antitumoral,

analgesic An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or pain management). It ...

, mutagenic, and

toxicological Toxicology is a scientific discipline, overlapping with biology, chemistry, pharmacology, and medicine, that involves the study of the adverse effects of chemical substances on living organisms and the practice of diagnosing and treating expos ...

activities.Senecio scandens Buch.-Ham.: a review on its ethnopharmacology, phytochemistry, pharmacology, and toxicity
Dongmei Wang , Linfang Huang, Shilin Chen.

National Library of Medicine The United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), operated by the United States federal government, is the world's largest medical library. Located in Bethesda, Maryland, the NLM is an institute within the National Institutes of Health. Its ...

. 7 June 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2023.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q10904991 scandens Flora of China Flora of Indonesia Flora of Thailand Flora of Japan Vines Plants described in 1825