Scientfic names Common names

Saccharum violaceum F.-Vill. Agbo (Ibn.)

Saccharum officinarum Linn. Caa dulce (Span.)
Saccharum chinense Roxb. Tubo (Tag., Bik.)
Saccharum officinale Salisb. Tubu (Sul.)
Una (Ibn.)
Unas (Ilk.)
Unat (It.)
Noblecane (Engl.)
Sugar cane (Engl.)
Hong gan zhe (Chin.)
Other vernacular names

ARABIC: Qassab es sukkar.

BENGALI: Aankha, Ukha, Uuka.
CHINESE: Hong gan zhe, Guo zhe, Gan zhe.
DANISH: Suikerriet.
FRENCH: Canne a sucre.
GERMAN: Zuckerrohr.
HEBREW: Kaneh.
ITALIAN: Canna da zucchero, Canna mele.
JAPANESE: Satou kibi.
KHMER: 'mpu.
KOREAN: Sa t'ang su su.
LAOTIAN: 'o:yz.
MALAY: Tebu, Tebu telur, Tebu (Indonesia).
MALAYALAM: Karimbu, Karimpu.
MARATHI: Usa.
NEPALESE: Ganna, Sahacar, Ukhu.
NORWEGIAN: Sukkerrr.
PORTUGUESE: Cana de acar, Cana do acar, Canna de assucar.
PUNJABI: Gacnaa.
RUSSIAN: Sakharnyi trostnik kul'turnyi, Sakharnyi trostnik lekarstvennyi, Trostnik sakharnyi.
SANSKRIT: Ikshava
SPANISH: Caa de azcar, Caa dulce, Caamiel, Caa melar, Caa sacarina, Caa comn.
SUDANESE: Tiwu.
SWEDISH: Sockerrr.
TAMIL: Kaarumbu (Karumbu).
THAI: Oi daeng, Ton oi
URDU: Gannaa.
VIETNAMESE: Cy ma, Ma.
Sugarcane is a large, coarse and erect grass. Stems are solid, polished, green,
yellow or purplish, attaining a height of 1.5 to 4 meters, 2 to 5 centimeters thick,
with long and short internodes. Leaves are very large and broad, with blades 0.9
to 1.25 meters long and 4 to 5 centimeters wide. Panicles are very large, white,
drooping and terminal, 40 to 80 centimeters long; branches up to 35 centimeters
long. Spikelets are very numerous, 1-flowered, about 3 millimeters long, with
surrounding white villous hairs about twice as long as the spikelets.
Distribution
- Cultivated many parts of the world, very extensively in some islands and
provinces.
- One of the major crops of the Archipelago.
Constituents
Sucrose is the product of the sugar cane juice.
Properties
- Crystals are odorless and sweet.
- Considered antidote, antiseptic, antivinous, bactericidal, cardiotonic,
demulcent, diuretic, emollient, cooling, laxative, stimulant.
Parts used
Roots, sugar.
Uses
Edibility / Nutritional
- Nutritious.
- Largely used for preserving meat and fruit.
Folkloric traditional medicinal benefits and uses of the sugarcane
- Refined sugar has been used for fevers, lack of secretion, dry coughs.
- Molasses is used as a laxative.
- Sugar is applied to wounds, ulcers, boils, and inflamed eyes.
- Pulped sugar used to dress wounds; the cane used for splinting broken bones.
- In Mexico used to relieve coughs.
- Malay women use it in childbirth.
- Decoction of root used for whooping cough.
- In India, plant juices used for abdominal tumors.
- In Cote-d'-Ivoire, leaf decoction used for hypertension.
Other uses
Refined
Scientific studies on the benefits and uses of sugarcane
Immunostimulating Effect:
The phagocytic activity of peripheral blood leucocytes in chickens increased
significantly when orally administered sugar cane extracts, with higher antibody
responses and delayed type hypersensitivity responses.
Prokinetic Effect:
S officinarum was one of seven known herbs in a polyherbal
formulation. Study showed increased gastric emptying and suggests a potential
for use as a gastrointestinal prokinetic to improve gastrointestinal motility.
Hypoglycemic Effect:
Study reports the hypoglycemic effect of juice from sugar cane stalks. The
isolated constituent, saccharin, provided a transient reduction of blood glucose.
The transient hypoglycemic effect of complex polysaccharides is suggested to be
possibly from increased glucose utilization in the liver and peripheral tissues.
Phytochemicals / Antioxidant:
Study of sugarcane leaves yielded luteolin-8-C (rhamnosylglucoside), with
radical scavenging activity. The juice yielded flavones diosmetin-8-C-glucoside,
vitrexin, schaftoside, isoschaftoside and 4',5'-dimethyl-luteolin-8-C glucoside. Its
content of flavonoids suggest a potential for sugarcane as a dietary source of
natural antioxidants.
Steroidogenesis / Testosterone Effect:
Study investigated the effect of sugar cane (S. officinarum) molasses on
steroidogenesis in testis cell culture. Results showed low concentrations of
molasses increase testosterone secretion. Study suggests molasses may be a
potential diet supplement to increase testosterone levels.
Optimization of Cytochrome C Production:
Comparative study of Manihot Esculenta and Saccharum officinarum showed S.
officinarum to be a better optimizer for cytochrome C production. Sugarcane had
the higher rate of carbohydrate yield compared to Cassava in terms of inoculum
volume with a difference of 5.57%.
Toxicity concerns !
Sugarcane contains hydrocyanic. Sugar cane is a known teratogen. Molasses in
excess amounts, alone or mixed with feeds, may cause diarrhea, colic, urticaria,
kidney irritation, sweating and paralysis in domestic stock; horses seem more
susceptible, and toxicity could prove fatal.
Availability
Cultivated.
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