Skip to main content

Secang (Caesalpinia sappan)

Secang or Biancaea sappan (Caesalpinia sappan) is a species of small tree or shrub, 4-10 m tall, grayish-brown or green stems and has many protuberances like teeth with many thorns that are curved downward and scattered, young twigs and buds have fine hair that is smooth tanned.

C. sappan has brown taproot, stems grow upright, compound leaves and double pinnate with 3-4 mm support, green and easy to fall. The main leaf bone is 25-40 cm long with 9-14 pairs of side leaf bones.

Dlium Secang (Caesalpinia sappan)

Secang has 10-20 pairs of minor leaves on each side of the leaf bone, facing each other, oval shaped, 10-25x3-11 mm with a tilted base and curved ends, with flat edges and short hair.

Flowers in panicles at the tip of the stem or in the upper armpits, 10-40 cm long, have protective leaves for 5-12x2-5 mm, hair and fall off easily. Pedicels have a length of 15-20 mm.

Yellow flowers, number 5, bald petals and taju has a size of 7-10x4 mm. The flower crown has hair, 9-11.5x6-10 mm, the upward has smaller size, has nails for 5 mm, stalks for 15 mm and pistils for 18 mm.

The fruit in pods, oval and asymmetrical, 6-10x3-4 cm, has a beak tip, yellowish green and becomes reddish brown when ripe. Each pod has 2-4 seeds, ellipsoid, 15-18x8-11 mm and blackish brown.







Secang grows in the tropics at an altitude of 500-1000 m on sloping lands and cannot stand inundation. This plant grows on clay soil or rocky limestone or sandy soil near rivers.

Wood is used as a coloring agent for food, clothing, plaits and other items. Wood also has properties as astringensia. The main ingredients are brazilin as an antioxidant, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-photoaging, hypoglycemic, vasorelaxant, hepatoprotective and anti-acne.

Wood extract also has anti-tumor, anti-virus, immunostimulant and others properties. The Javanese use pieces of sappan wood to mix herbal ingredients and one of the ingredients for making distinctive refreshments in Yogyakarta.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Tribe: Caesalpinieae
Genus: Caesalpinia
Species: Caesalpinia sappan

Popular Posts

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) manufacture bubble-nets as tools to increase prey intake

NEWS - Humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) create bubble net tools while foraging, consisting of internal tangential rings, and actively control the number of rings, their size, depth and horizontal spacing between the surrounding bubbles. These structural elements of the net increase prey intake sevenfold. Researchers have known that humpback whales create “bubble nets” for hunting, but the new report shows that the animals also manipulate them in a variety of ways to maximize catches. The behavior places humpbacks among the rare animals that make and use their own tools. “Many animals use tools to help them find food, but very few actually make or modify these tools themselves,” said Lars Bejder, director of the Marine Mammal Research Program (MMRP), University of Hawaii at Manoa. “Humpback whales in southeast Alaska create elaborate bubble nets to catch krill. They skillfully blow bubbles in patterns that form a web with internal rings. They actively control details such ...

Jomblang Cave

Jomblang Cave or Luweng Jomblang is a 50-meter vertical collapse doline type cave in Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta Province, Indonesia. This cave was formed due to geological processes in which soil and vegetation on the surface collapsed to the bottom of the earth into a sinkhole thousands of years ago into ancient forests in the cave. Inside the cave grows endemic vegetation and a place for conservation of ancient plants. Sunlight bursts into 90 meters of Luweng Grubug to form a light pole, illuminating the beautiful flowstone and water dripping from a height in a dark room. Characteristics Jomblang Cave is one of the caves of hundreds of caves in the Gunung Sewu Geopark . This doline collapse cave is formed due to the surface process collapsing and forming a sinkhole. Ancient plants that lived on the surface also fell to the bottom of the earth, adapted and continued to grow until now as a very rare endemic plant. This cave has a mouth hole 50 meters wide and 60 meters ...

Tanglehead (Heteropogon contortus)

Tanglehead ( Heteropogon contortus ) is a species of Poaceae, an erect grass, up to 65 cm tall, with leaves up to 13 cm long and 0.5 cm wide. The inflorescence is at the top and hairy. The tip is black. This plant forms dense colonies in forests, agricultural lands, roadsides, and abandoned areas. TAXON : Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Liliopsida Order: Poales Family: Poaceae Subfamily: Panicoideae Tribe: Andropogoneae Subtribe: Anthistiriinae Genus: Heteropogon Pers. in Syn. Pl. 2: 533 (1807) Species: Heteropogon contortus (L.) P.Beauv. in J.J.Roemer & J.A.Schultes, Syst. Veg., ed. 15[bis]. 2: 836 (1817) HOMOTYPIC SYNONYMS : Andropogon contortus L. in Sp. Pl.: 1045 (1753) Heteropogon contortus var. hirtus Hack. in C.F.P.von Martius & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Bras. 2(3): 267 (1883) Heteropogon hirtus Pers. (1807) Holcus contortus (L.) Stuck. in Anales Mus. Nac. Buenos Aires, ser. 3, 4: 48 (1904) Sorghum contortum (L.) Kuntze in Revis. Gen. ...