Medicinal Herbs

Tongkat Ali Root Extract

Eurycoma longifolia

Tongkat ali (Eurycoma longifolia) is a small branching tree whose odd-pinnate leaves are made up of ten to thirty-six pairs of thick, oblong, almost stalkless leaflets. The flowers are furred all over, and the fruit is a smooth red drupe, slightly elongated, with a blunt curving tip and a single hairy seed inside. It grows throughout Vietnam and is commonest in the central provinces; it is found in Malaysia and Indonesia too. The bark of trunk and root is stripped and dried, as is the fruit. The bark is bitter, from the quassin it holds; bark of trees at Biên Hòa, Trảng Bom and Định Quán yielded the bitter eurycomalactone.