Alkekengi
Alkekengi is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae with a single species Alkekengi officinarum. This species is native to the regions covering Southern Europe to South Asia and Northeast Asia.
It is commonly known as the bladder cherry, Chinese lantern, Japanese-lantern, strawberry groundcherry, winter cherry, alchechengi berry, or Klabuster cherry.
It is a close relative of the new world Calliphysalis carpenteri and a somewhat more distant relative to the members of the Physalis genus.
Description
It is easily identifiable by the large, bright orange to red papery calyx covering over its fruit, which resembles paper lanterns. It is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to tall, with spirally arranged leaves long and broad. The flowers are white, with a five-lobed corolla across, with an inflated basal calyx which matures into the papery orange fruit covering, long and broad. And it has one variety, Alkekengi officinarum var. franchetii.Research has shown Calliphysalis carpenteri to be among the most closely related species to Physalis alkekengi.
Cultivation
It is a popular ornamental plant, widely cultivated in temperate regions of the world, and very hardy to below. It can be invasive with its wide-spreading root system sending up new shoots some distance from where it was originally planted. In various places around the world, it has escaped from cultivation.In the United Kingdom it has been given the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Garden Merit.
History
Physalis alkekengi has been used for a wide range of purposes in traditional medicine for around two millennia. It was used, purportedly to heal fever, induce mental serenity, and assist in childbirth, according to ancient Chinese books including the Erya and Shen Nong Ben Cao Jing. Its usage in reducing heat, boosting energy, and aiding in diuresis was also mentioned in Li Shizhen's Ming dynasty Compendium of Materia Medica. The plant's juice was thought to be useful in treating jaundice.The English herbalist John Gerard describes a plant known as red winter cherries in his late 16th-century herbal, which may refers to Alkekengi officinarum. He says that the plant is also called red nightshade and alkakengie in English. It is kept in gardens and the berries are used as traditional medicine.
Traditional uses
The dried fruit is called the golden flower in the Unani system of medicine, and used as a diuretic, antiseptic, liver corrective, and sedative.In Chinese medicine, Alkekengi is used to treat such conditions as abscesses, coughs, fevers, and sore throat. The extinct Dacian language has left few traces, but in De Materia Medica by Pedanius Dioscorides, a plant called is discussed, which was called kykolis by the Dacians. Some have considered this plant to be Alkekengi officinarum, but the name more likely refers to ashwagandha.
Chemical constituents
Alkekengi officinarum contains a wide variety of physalins. When isolated from the plant, these have antibacterial and leishmanicidal activities in vitro.It also contains caffeic acid ethyl ester, 25,27-dehydro-physalin L, physalin D, and cuneataside E.
More than 530 different chemicals, including steroids, flavonoids, alkaloids, phenylpropanoids, sucrose esters, piperazines, volatile oils, polysaccharides, amino acids, and trace elements, are present in Physalis alkekengi.