Distribution

Native of tropical America but now distributed and naturalized pantropically, including South-East Asia. Occasionally cultivated in Mexico and India.

Uses

The shoot tips are used as a food flavouring and the roots as an appetizer. Sometimes the whole plant is used as forage for cattle.

In the Philippines the stem tips and leaves are used externally to treat wounds and skin diseases, in a bath to treat rheumatism and as sudorific, and internally as antispasmodic. The root has emmenagogue and stomachic properties, and is also used to treat rheumatism. The leaves are also used as insect repellent, e.g. against bedbugs. In Papua New Guinea leaves are applied externally to cuts and wounds, and internally to treat fever and catarrh. In Indonesia the plant is used as galactagogue. In China stems and leaves are used in traditional medicine to treat colds, rheumatism, eczema and bruises. In Africa and Central America H. suaveolens has similar medicinal applications. In Thailand pounded branches and leaves are used as lice repellent for chickens. The leaves are also used to repel bedbugs. The essential oil in the leaves (0.025%) has been used as an adulterant of patchouli oil.

Observations

• Strongly aromatic, almost fetid herb, up to 2 m tall with 4-angled, much branched, hirsute stem.
• Leaves decussate, firmly herbaceous; petiole 0.5-3 cm long; blade ovate to broadly obovate, 3-5 cm × 2-4 cm, gland-dotted, margin irregularly serrulate, densely pubescent beneath.
• Inflorescence a verticillate, 2-5-flowered cyme, arranged racemosely towards the end of branches in the axil of smaller leaves; peduncle up to 1 cm long.
• Calyx campanulate, 5 mm long, in fruit up to 10 mm, strongly 5-ribbed, with 5 setaceous teeth; corolla tubular, 6-8 mm long, blue to violet, limb bilabiate, upper lip 2-lobed, lower lip 3-lobed; stamens 4, included in corolla; stigma shortly bifid.
• Fruit usually consisting of 2 nutlets; nutlet narrowly oblongoid, up to 4 mm × 3 mm, faintly rugose, brown.

H. suaveolens occurs in dry open localities, along streams and roadsides, as a weed in plantations and fields, from sea-level up to 1300 m altitude, in seasonal and per-humid conditions. Flowering and fruiting is year-round. In the dry season it sheds its leaves. The pericarp of the nutlet swells to a gelatinous mass when soaked in water.

_{Sourced from https://uses.plantnet-project.org/en/Hyptis_suaveolens_(PROSEA)}

Hyptis suaveolens (L.) Poir. is distributed worldwide in the tropical regions [1], and its seed, known as pignut or chan, has been used for preparation of refreshing drinks in several countries such as Mexico and Taiwan. Like psyllium seed, it will swell while immersing in water and appear like flour ball. Thus, it is called “wild flour ball” in Taiwan. The ethanol extract of H. suaveolens aerial part has been demonstrated to possess gastro-protective activity in vivo [2], and the essential oils from its leaf displayed antimicrobial [3] and insecticidal activities [4], [5]. Past chemical studies on H. suaveolens seed mainly focused on the protein [6], and oligo- and polysaccharides [7], [8]. The bioactive constituents of small molecules in this material, however, required investigation.

Gout is a metabolic disorder associated with hyperuricemia caused by overproduction or underexcretion of uric acid. As uric acid is produced via oxidation of xanthine/hypoxanthine by xanthine oxidase, mainly in intestine and liver, the inhibition of this key enzyme can lower uric acid level, leading to the prevention of recurrent gout [9]. Natural products have been considered as a potential source of healthy supplement. Recently, our lab has isolated several unusual phenylpropanoids from aerial part of Hyptis rhomboids and these isolates, e.g. hyprhombins B & C, epihyprhombin B, and netpetoidin B, showed good inhibitory activity against xanthine oxidase [10]. This current study was aimed to disclose whether the seed of a related plant, H. suaveolens (L.) Poir., contained similar constituents, hence beneficial for hyperuricemic persons.

The high performance liquid chromatography-solid phase extraction-nuclear magnetic resonance (HPLC-SPE-NMR) hyphenation has been applied in natural product investigation for years [11], [12], [13]. This hyphenation is powerful to screen the chemical constituents of the plants because of its high efficiency in separation and analysis (HPLC), provision of informative data for structural characterization (NMR), and cumulative compound trapping, removal of eluent interference (SPE) to enhance the sensitivity for NMR measurement.

Herein we report our effort in isolation and identification of quinic acid derivatives possessing xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity from H. suaveolens seeds via the assistance of HPLC-SPE-NMR.

_{Sourced from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1021949819300572}