Spiked Spiralflag

Overview

Spiked spiralflag is native to the Caribbean region: specifically to Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Martinique, the islands of Dominica and Dominican Republic. Principally in tropical regions of the world, it is often grown as an ornamental and medicinal herb.

Vernacular Names

Cana branca (Brazil), Caña santa (Cuba), Corkscrew ginger(English), Caña amarga (Puerto Rico), Caña de arroyo (Spanish), .

Agroecology

C. spicatus grows in the understory of wet coastal forests and rainforests. It is also grown as an ornamental in gardens, parks, and along road sides, mostly in warm and humid habitats, from sea level to 1,000 m. Prefers a very fertile, acid soil, a position in some shade, and it can be grows well in the climate with high humidity and low temperature.

Morphology

• Roots - fibrous, white or pale yellow rhizome, root stock tuberous stem, sub-woody at the base, thick creeping rhizomes with 120-300 cm height.
• Stems - true stems, grow little suckers from thenodes which root when the stem falls over.spiral like a corkscrew.
• Leaves -dark green, petioles 2-10 mm long,puberulous to glabrous, leaf blades narrowly elliptic, 7-33 × 3.5-8.5 cm or more, shortly acuminate at the apex, rounded to cordate atbase, glabrescent on both surfaces.
• Flowers - inflorescence ovoid to cylindrical, 5-27× 3-4.5 cm, bracts greenish or reddish on the exposed part, reddish on the coveredpart, broadly ovate, 5-6 cm long with a cup-shaped labellum.
• Seeds -black seeds

Cultivation

• Propagated by seeds (generative propagation), by stem cuttings and division(vegetative propagation).
• Seed - best sown fresh, germinates best at a temperature of 20 °C.
• Division - the rhizomes are cut into pieces2.5 cm long and planted in a mixture of sand and peat moss.
• Cuttings of stem sections - the stems are cut into pieces 2.5 cm long and planted in a mixture of sand and peat moss. 

Chemical Constituents

• Rhizomes revealed the presence of flavonoids, flavo-carbohydrates,saponins, sapogenins, and diosgenin.
• The aerial parts have been described two new glycosidic flavonoids:tamarixetin the Kaempferol 3-O-neohesperidoside and 3-O-neohesperidoside, also quercetin 3-O-neohesperidoside and other compounds. 

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The young leaves are used to treat head colds with a fever.
• Juice of rhizome is applied to head for cooling and relief rom head-ache.
• The young stems are used against diarrhea, cough, cuts, wounds, scabies, antidote for snake bite, jaundice, arthritis, burning sensation, constipation, leprosy, skin diseases, asthma, bronchitis, inflammations, anemia
• The decoction of stem is used in fever and dysentery.
• The acid sap is used in home remedies as a diuretic.
• In Brazil, cataplasms of heated leaves of this species are used to treatkidney and bladder tumours