Chapter II: Review of Related Literature

Gumamela
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis Linn.

General info
• About 300 species are found worldwide. Its beauty makes it one of the most widely cultivated of flowers, in brilliant huers of red, orange, or purplish-reds, with short-lived but continuing blooms.

Botany
• An erect, much-branched, glabrous shrub, 1 to 4 m high.
• Leaves: glossy green, ovate, acuminate, pointeed, coarsely-toothed, 7 to 12 cm long, alternate, stipulate.
• Flowers: solitary, axillary, very large. Outermost series of bracteoles 6, lanceolate, green, and 8 mm long or less. Calyx green, 2 cm long, lobes ovate. Petals commonly red, obovate, entire, rounded tip, and imbricate. Stamens forming a long staminal tube enclosing the entire style of the pistil and protruding out of the corolla. Ovary 5-celled, styles 5, fused below.
• Fruits: capsules, loculicidally 5-valved, but rarely formed in cultivation

Distribution
Ornamental cultivation throughout the whole country.
Cuttings used for propagation.
Parts utilized
• Flowers, roots, and leaves.
• Harvest the roots and leaves anytime of the year.
• Wash, cut into slices, and sun-dry. The flowers should be collected from May to August, sun-dry.

Characteristics and Pharmacological Effects
• Considered emollient, emmenagogue, anodyne, expectorant, refrigerant.
• Anti-infectious, anthelmintic, antiinflammatory, diuretic, antipyretic.
• Hypotensive, antispasmodic.
• Prepared drug has sweet taste, neutral natured.
• The Hibiscus with five petals noted for its medicinal properties, the flowers are considerede astringent. The roots contain a mucilage that is soothing on the mucous membranes of the digestive and respiratory tracts.

Constituents
Hibiscotin.
Flowers: Flavonoids and proanthocyanidins which are antioxidant, antipyretic, analgesic, spasmolytic.
Polysaccharides which promote wound healing and are immune-modulating. (Link)

Uses
Folkloric
• Mumps, infection of the urinary tract: use dried drug materials 15 to 30 gms, boil to decoction and drink.
• For abscesses, carbuncles and boils: crush fresh leaves and poultice the infected area. Also, pound flower buds into a paste and apply to external swellings; also used for boils, cancerous swellings and mumps.
• Decoction of roots, barks, leaves and flowers used as an emollient.
• Decoction from roots of red and white-flowered plants used as an antidote for poison.
• Bark is an emmenagogue; also used to normalize menstruation.
• Seeds used as a stimulant and for cramps.
• Decoction of leaves for fevers.
• For headaches, an infusion of leaves or poultice of leaves.
• Leaves are mildly laxative.
• Mucilage during labor.
• Red flowers are purgative; when taken with papaya seeds, may be abortive.
• Infusion of leaves as an expectorant in bronchitis.
• Hair stimulant: oil made by mixing the juice of fresh petals and olive oil for stimulating hair growth.
• In Costa Rica, used as a purgative.
• In Venezuela, used to treat tumors.
• In the Carribean, used as analgesic, anti-inflammatory.
• In the Dominican Republic, used to treat hematomas.

Culinary
A tasty tea is brewed from its petals.

Studies
• Studies have demonstrated anti-bacterial, hypotensive, antispasmodic, and chemopreventive activities. It has shown glucose lowering in diabetic rats. Leaf extract has shown to promote hair growth.

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In dermatology, an abrasion is superficial damage to the skin, generally not deeper than the epidermis. It is more superficial than an excoriation, although it can give mild bleeding. Mild abrasions do not scar, but deep abrasions may lead to the development of scarring tissue.

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