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Bunga Melur / Melati

Bunga Melur  
Scientific Name Jasminum sambac (L) Ait.
Family Oleaceae
Order Lamiales
Common Name Jasmine (English), Melur (Malay). Synonym: Nyctanthes sambac L., Mogorium sambac (L) Lam., Jasminum sambac var. normale Kuntze 
Description Best grown in loose, humusy, evenly moist but well-drained soil in full sun to part shade. It grows as a sprawling shrub, with small, waxy, white flowers, 1 “ in diameter in clusters of 3-12 blooms.The flowers bloom throughout the year. The plant solely reproduced by cuttings, layering, carcotting and other methods of asexual propagation. The leaves are ovate, 1.6-4.9 in long and 0.79 to 3.0 wide
bunga melor  

It is widely cultivated for its attractive and sweetly fragrant flowers. The flowers are also used for perfumes and for making tea. Typically, the flowers are harvested as buds during early morning. The flower buds are harvested on basis of color, as firmness and size are variable depending on the weather. The buds have to be white, as green ones may not emit the characteristic fragrance they are known for. Open flowers are generally not harvested as a larger amount of them is needed to extract oils and they lose their fragrance sooner (10).


 Native to South and Southeast Asia.


It is a small shrub or vine growing up to 0.5 to 3 m (1.6 to 9.8 ft) in height.


Flowers and leaves are largely used in Indian folk medicine to prevent and treat breast cancer.

Flowers of J. sambac are useful to women when brewed as a tonic as it aids in preventing breast cancer and stopping uterine bleeding. It is widely used in the Ayurvedic, as an antiulcerative, anticancer, antileprotic, skin diseases and wound healing (Joshi, S.G. et al, 2000).

The flowers to treat diarrhea, fever, conjuctivitis, abdominal pain, dermatitis, asthma, abscess, breast cancer, uterine bleeding and toothache. In China the leaf  are used for quadriplegia gall, dysentery and bellyache.

Leaves used to reduce the shortness of breath and as treatment of acne.

Root is used to treat headace and insomnia and is believed can accelerate fracture healing.

Essential oil is used as fregrance for skin care products as it tones the skin as well as reduces skin infalmmation.


Chemical constitutents in root are dotriacontanoic acid, dotriacontanol, oleanolic acid, daucosterol and hesperidin (Zhang, Z.F., et al 2004). Linalyl β-d-glucopyranoside  and its 6′-O-malonate  were isolated as aroma precursors of linalool from flower buds of Jasminum sambac guided by enzymatic hydrolysis followed by GC and GC-MS analyses (Moon, J.H., et al 1994).

Besides a known trimeric iridoidal glycoside, sambacoside A, five new oligomeric iridoidal glycosides, molihuasides A-E were isolated from the flowers of Jasminum sambac. Their structures were determined by spectral and chemical evidence. Among them, molihuasides A and C-E are new dimeric iridoidal glycosides and molihuaside B is a new trimeric iridoidal glycoside (Zhang, Y.J., 1995.

Phytochemical analysis of the ethanolic Jasmine flower extract of Jasminum sambac (L.) revealed the mixtures of coumarins, cardiac glycosides, essential oils, flavonoids, phenolics, saponins, and steroids (Kunhachan, P., et al 2012).

Its phytoconstituents contain iridoidal glycosides, linalyl 6-O-malonyl-β-D-glucopyranoside, benzyl 6-O-β-Dxylopyranosyl- β-D-glucopyranoside (β-primeveroside), 2- phenylethyl β-primeveroside, 2-phenylethyl 6-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl- β-D-glucopyranoside (β-rutinoside), dotriacontanoic acid, dotriacontanol, oleanolic acid, daucosterol, and hesperidin (Zhang, Z.F. et al., 2004). The volatile constituents consist of benzyl acetate, indole, E-E-α-farnesene, Z-3-hexenyl benzoate, benzyl alcohol, linalool, and methyl anthranilate (Edris, 2008).


Anti cancer activity:

The anticancer effect of Jasminum sambac against Daltons ascites lymphoma induced Swiss albino mice in in vitro and in vivo model. The tumor cell proliferation inhibitory activity of Jasminum sambac methanolic extract showed dose dependent in both HeLa and mouse fibroblast cells. At concentrations 25-400μg/ml, the percentage of cell inhibition concentration of normal and cancer cells was found to be 123.3 and 93.8 μg/ml respectively. The assessment of anticancer activity of J.sambac was evaluated by measuring the activity of hematological profiles, liver function marker and cancer marker enzymes. The methanolic extract at oral dose of 100mg/kg body weight exhibited a significant (p< 0.05) changes in the levels of hematological profiles, AST, ALT, ACP, ALT and LDH and cancer marker enzymes such as 5’Nucleotidase, β-D- Glucuronidase, γ-Glutamyl transferase as compared to DLA induced group. Thus it could be concluded that the methanolic extract of J.sambac possesses significant anticancer properties (Kalaiselvi, M., et al 2012).

Gastroprotective Effects

Jasminum sambac is used in folk medicine as the treatment of many diseases. The aim of the investigation is to evaluate the gastroprotective effects of ethanolic extracts of J. sambac leaves against acidified ethanol-induced gastric ulcers in rats. Seven groups of rats were orally pre-treated with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) as normal group, CMC as ulcer group, 20 mg/kg of omeprazole as positive group, 62.5, 125, 250, and 500 mg/kg of extract as the experimental groups, respectively. An hour later, CMC was given orally to normal group and acidified ethanol solution was given orally to the ulcer control, positive control, and the experimental groups. The rats were sacrificed after an hour later. Acidity of gastric content, the gastric wall mucus, ulcer areas, and histology and immunohistochemistry of the gastric wall were assessed. Gastric homogenates were determined for prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), superoxide dismutase (SOD), andmalondialdehyde (MDA) content. Ulcer group exhibited significantly severe mucosal injury as compared with omeprazole or extract which shows significant protection towards gastric mucosal injury the plant promotes ulcer protection as it shows significant reduction of ulcer area grossly, and histology showed marked reduction of edema and leucocytes infiltration of submucosal layer compared with ulcer group. Immunohistochemistry showed overexpression of Hsp70 protein and downexpression of Bax protein in rats pretreated with extract. Significant increased in the pH, mucus of gastric content and high levels of PGE2, SOD and reduced amount of MDA was observed (AlRashidi A. et al., 2012)

Anti bacteria and antioxidant

The essential oil of Jasminum sambac from Djibouti was subjected to screening for their possible antioxidant activity by two complementary test systems, namely DPPH free radical scavenging and beta-carotene-linoleic acid assays. Butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) was used as positive control in both test systems. In the DPPH test system, the IC50 value of essential oil and methanol extract were respectively 7.43 and 2.30 µg/ml. In the beta-carotene-linoleic acid system, oxidation was effectively inhibited by Jasminum sambac, the RAA value of essential oil and methanol extract were respectively 96.6 and 93.9%. When compared to BHT, the essential oil and methanol extract had nearly the same activities. The essential oil and methanol extract were evaluated for their antimicrobial activities using disc diffusion and microdilution methods. The essential oil and methanol extract showed higher activities against bacterial species than yeast (Abdoul-Latif, F. et al., 2010)


By intravenous injection at a single dose of 0.5mL/mouse (15 mg) of the ethanolic Jasmine flower extract, no systemic biological toxicity demonstrated in ICR mice was observed. In Wistar rats, the LD50 of the extract was higher than 5,000 mg/kg BW by oral administration. Vasodilatation effect of the 95% ethanolic extract on isolated aortic rats was also investigated. Compared with the control group, the Jasmine flowers extract in 0.05% DMSO clearly reduced tonus of isolated endothelium thoracic aortic rings preconstricted with phenylephrine (106 M), as a dose-dependent manner. Nevertheless, this pharmacological effect disappeared after the preincubation of the rings with atropine (106 M) or with Nω-nitro-L-arginine (104 M). These are possibly due to the actions of the active components on the vessel muscarinic receptors or by causing the release of nitric oxide. (Kunhachan P. et al 2012).


1.Abdoul-Latif F., P. Edou, F. Eba, N. Mohamed, A. Ali, S. Djama, L. C. Obame, I. Bassole, M. Hama (2010). Antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oil and methanol extract of Jasminum sambac from Djibouti. African Journal of Plant Science, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 38–43, 2010. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/43120136.

2.AlRashdi A., Suzy M. Salama, Salim S. Alkiyumi, M. A. Abdulla, A.H. A. Hadi, S.I. Abdelwahab, M.M. Taha, J. Hussiani & Nur Asyikin (2012). The Mechanisms of Gastroprotective Effects of Ethanolic Leaf Extract of Jasminum sambac against HCl/Ethanol Induced Gastric Mucosal Injury in Rats. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine Vo,Article ID 786426, Pg 15http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ecam/2012/786426/

3.Edris A.E., R. Chizzola, and C. Franz (2008). Isolation and characterization of the volatile aroma compounds from the concrete headspace and the absolute of Jasminum sambac (L.) Ait. (Oleaceae) flowers grown in Egypt. European Food Research and Technology, vol. 226 (3), Pg. 621–626.

4.Kalaiselvi M., R. Narmadha, P. Ragavendran. G. Ravikumar, D. Gomathi, D. Sophia, C. A. Raj, C. Uma & Kalaivani K.. (2012). In vivo and in vitro antitumor activity of Jasminum sambac (Linn) of oleaceae Flower Against Dalton’s Ascites Lymphoma induced Swiss Albino Mice. International Journal of Pharmacy and Sciences, vol 4(1); Pg 144-147.

5.Kunhachan P. Banchonglikitkul C., Kajsongkram T., Khayungarnnawee A. Leelamanit W. (2012). Chemical Composition, Toxicity and Vasodilation Effect of the Flowers Extract of Jasminum sambac (L) Ait. “G. Duke of Tuscany”. Evidence –Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Vol 2012. 7 pages. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/ PMC3320082/pdf/ECAM2012-471312.pdf

6.Joshi, S G., Oleaceae: Joshi SG. (Ed.), Medicinal Plants. Oxford & IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd, New Delhi: 2000. p. 298-300. in Kalaiselvi, M., et al (2012).

7.Moon Jh., Watanabe N., Sakata K., Inagaki J., Yagi A., Ina K. And Luo S. (1994). Linalyl B-D-glucopyranoside and its 6’-O-malonate as aroma prcursors from Jasminum sambac. Phytochemistry Vol 36 (6), Pg 1435-1437.

8.Zhang ZF, Brian BL, Yang J. Tian XF (2004) Studies on chemical contitutents in roots of Jasminum sambac. Abstract. Europe PubMed Central. http://europepmc.org/abstract/ MED/15706849.

9.Zhang Y.J. Liu Y.Q. Pu X Y. & Yang C.R. (1995). Iridoidal glycosides from Jasminum sambac. Abstract. Phytochemistry Vol 38 (4); Pg 899-903.  http://www.sciencedirect.com/ science/ article/pii/0031942294E0200C.

10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jasminum_sambac

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