Oxalis latifolia Kunth

Calincing daun kupu kupu (Oxalis latifolia) is a herb up to 30 cm tall from the Oxalidaceae family, a plant native to Mexico now listed as a weed in at least 37 countries. Its leaves and stems are eaten as a vegetable or tea in Mexico, though they need to be cooked to reduce oxalic acid. Calincing daun kupu kupu is one of the versatile medicinal plants in India with a broad spectrum of biological activity.

Oxalis latifolia is a humid tropical plant, found mainly in areas at higher elevations between 1,100-1,800 m asl (up to 3,000 m asl in Colombia), and also from subtropical regions. This species is most often found in gardens, fields, plantations (especially coffee, tea, cassava, corn, rice, potato, cereal, and sugarcane plantations, fruit and vegetable gardens), and settlements, and grows best in shaded and moist conditions.

• Roots fleshy taproot, resembling a small carrot but whitish in color. Bears a tuber above the taproot, ovate shaped (1 to 2 cm in diameter) with numerous roughly upright stolons, many brown scales, elliptic, brown and thin on the outside, white and fleshy inside.
• Stem not formed.
• Leaves arising on long petioles from the soil surface, hairless, trifoliate, with individual leaflets heart-shaped, triangular, or resembling a butterfly or broad fish tail, green. Apex emarginate with a broad shallow sinus. Margin entire.
• Flowers numerous on a single stalk. The stalk bears an umbel of 5-12 flowers. Five sepals each with two orange glands at the tip. Five petals purplish pink, the inner part (flower base) yellowish green with green stripes. Has two sets of five stamens of differing lengths. Filaments long and short, branched.
• Fruit an explosive capsule, green, broadly cylindrical shaped, slightly longer than the sepals, hairless, carpels 4-8 seeded but rarely fruiting.
• Seeds flat ellipsoidal, orange to dark yellow, about 1 mm long and ribbed.

• Propagation is vegetative with tubers and generative with seed. However, seeds are rarely produced.
• Three main phases in the growth of Oxalis latifolia using tubers: The establishment phase (weeks 1-5) is marked by slow absolute dry weight gain, but a high relative growth rate. The reproductive phase (weeks 6-12), during which stolons grow from the parent bulb and initiate bulbils at the apex, with some primary bulbils supporting secondary bulbils. The senescence phase (week 13 onward).

Tannins, alkaloids, phenols, saponins, flavonoids, and oxalic acid.

Treats gastric ulcers, heals wounds, dysentery and diarrhea, quartan fever, skin diseases, removes warts and corneal opacity, treats vomiting in children. Has antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, and antiscorbutic activity.

• Prepare calincing daun kupu kupu leaves, wash clean with running water then drain.
• Dry under the sun or with an oven at 40°C until the moisture content reaches 10%.
• Grind using a blender until it becomes powder.
• Store in a clean, airtight container.

Acem - acem (Sumatra), Calincing, Calincing gede (Sunda).