CUCUR ATAP

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Scientific name: Baeckea frutescens

Malay name: Cucur atap



Facts:
  • Baeckea frutescens is distributed from Southeast Asia to Australia, including southern China, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo, Sulawesi and New Guinea. It is not known to occur in Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands or the Philippines.
  • It is an evergreen that is a heather-like shrub or small tree up to a height of 8 m. The bark is greyish brown, fissured and flaky, branches upright then spreading and drooping with wiry ends.
  • B. frutescens grows on poor sandy and ultrabasic soils, in shrubland, often at high altitudes. It is also present in seasonally wet savanna and swamp forest.



Traditional Use:

  • The B. frutescens  entire plant, except the roots, is used as an antibacterial, an antidysentery, an antipyretic and a diuretic. It is claimed to be effective in treating influenza, coryza, epistaxis, fever, headache, measles, colic, abdominal pain, dyspepsia, jaundice, haemorrhagic dysentery and irregular menstrual cycles. Its external usage is in treating furunculosis and impetigo.
  • The leaves are also used to treat impetigo. Chinese use the leaves as remedy for sunstroke and fever. In Malaysia and Indonesia, they are used as an ingredient of the traditional medicine given to mothers during confinement.
  • The flowers of this plant are used to treat dyspepsia and menstrual problems. They are also used in massaging postpartum women for the treatment of body aches and numbness of the limbs. The essential oil from this plant is used in the treatment of rheumatism.


Pharmacological and Medicinal uses :

  • Cytotoxic activity
Phloroglucinols isolated from ethanol extract of B. frutescens  dried leaves exhibited cytotoxic activity. Only BF-2 showed strong cytotoxic activity (IC50 = 5.0 μg/mL) against leukaemia cells (L 1210) in tissue culture.Another study showed flavanones isolated from B. frutescens leaves also exhibited cytotoxic activity where compound BF-4 and BF-5 showed strong cytotoxic activity (IC50 = 0.2-0.5 μg/mL) against leukemia cells (L1210) in tissue culture.
  • Anticariogenic activity

Methanol extracts from five tropical plants (B. frutescens, Glycyrrhiza glabra, Kaempferia pandurata, Physalis angulata andQuercus infectoria) were investigated for their anticariogenic activity against Streptococcus mutans. The extracts of all plants exhibited potent antibacterial activity against S. mutans causing dental caries at all concentrations tested.
  • Inhibitory activity

In a study to identify the correlation between antimalarial and antibabesial activity of medicinal plants which are traditionally used for the treatment of malaria in Indonesia, 24 water extracts from 22 medicinal plants were screened against Plasmodium falciparum and Babesia gibsoni. The findings showed that almost all of the tested extracts inhibited the growth of B. gibsoni while they demonstrated different levels of growth inhibition on P. falciparum. The extract of B. frutescens displayed strong activity (above 80% inhibition) against malarial and babesial parasites. The study concluded that strong antimalarial activities paralleled strong antibabesial activities. However the converse was not true. This gives the suggestion that the plants used to treat malarial infection could be used to treat dogs infected with B. gibsoni.













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