Ludwigia octovalvis (Jacq.) P.H.Raven

Cacabean (Ludwigia octovalvis) is an erect herb up to 4 meters tall from the Onagraceae family, a pantropical weed spread across almost all tropical regions of the world, making its exact origin difficult to trace. In India and the Malay Peninsula, its leaf mucilage is used as a poultice for headaches and swollen glands. Cacabean also has potential as a phytoremediation plant absorbing arsenic and other dangerous metals.

Cacabean can be found throughout tropical regions, at elevations from sea level up to 1,500 m asl. Usually grows in wet soil and shallow water, in humid areas, moist grasslands, rice fields, along ditches, swamps, ponds, riverbeds, floating islands, lakes, and in coconut plantations. This plant prefers full sun (about 6-8 hours per day) and tolerates no more than side shade, with high water needs.

• Roots taproot, white or brown.
• Stem green or reddish-brown, branched, hairy, ribbed, sometimes becoming woody at the base.
• Leaves alternately arranged, light green, can turn red when old, narrowly lanceolate to ovate, narrowing or tapering at the base and tip, velvety hairy on both sides, short petiole.
• Flowers have 4 sepals, ovate, calyx tube slender. Petals numbering 4-5, ovate arranged in a cross-like pattern, petal tips sometimes folded downward, forming a large notch-like indentation. Corolla has distinct concave venation that creates a wavy surface, pale yellow to bright yellow. Stamens numbering 8, pale greenish-yellow. Flowers appear solitary in the leaf axils and at branch tips.
• Fruit a capsule 8-ribbed, thin-walled, 4-angled, narrowly cylindrical, velvety hairy, color varying from green to pale or reddish-brown or purplish, with 8 darker grooves, splitting irregularly at its locules.
• Seeds round, brown, arranged in many rows in each chamber.

• Propagation is done generatively using seeds. Seed dispersal is done by birds and agricultural equipment used for rice field cultivation.
• Seeds that fall to the ground germinate within 14 days.

Alkaloids, tannins, saponins, phenols, steroids, beta-sitosterol, oleanolic acid, 2alpha-hydroxy ursolic acid, tormentic acid, daucosterol, maltol, methyl brevifolincarboxylate, 3,4,8,9,10-pentahydroxydibenzo[b,d]pyran-6-one, ellagic acid, luteolin, quercetin, apigenin, gallic acid, (23Z)-coumaroylhederagenin, (23E)-coumaroylhederagenin, and (3Z)-coumaroylhederagenin.

Treats diarrhea, dysentery, nasal boils, orchitis (testicular inflammation), swollen glands, nerve diseases, relieves headaches, chest pain, rheumatic pain, heals dermatitis, ulcers, impetigo, acne, has laxative, vermifuge (worm remedy), carminative (relieving intestinal gas colic), analgesic (pain relieving), antibacterial, and antioxidant properties.

Salah nyowo (Java), Gagabusan (Sunda), Kalamenja (Madura), Pangambo (East Sumbawa), Keletele tengen (Minahasa), Daun panu (Ambon), Lakum air, Jebungan.