Botany
Kasopangil is an erect, branched, shrubby or half-woody plant, 1 to 2 meters in height. Stems are green, four-angled. Leaves, ovate, 9 to 20 centimeters long, with a pointed tip and heart-shaped base, and shallowly toothed margins. Flowers are odorless, bright red, slender and borne in terminal panicles in the upper axil of leaves. Corolla-tube is about 1 centimeter long; limb is spreading, somewhat oblique, subequally 5-lobed, the lobes being oblong and obtuse, and 1.5 centimeters in diameter. Stamens are 2 centimeters long, and red or purplish. Fruit is fleshy, blue, depressed-rounded, about 1 centimeter in diameter, with 3 to 4 seeds. Calyx is accrescent, red, spreading or reflexed, about 2 centimeters in diameter.

Distribution
- Common in thickets, secondary forests, and damp places, and along muddy shores and tidal streams at low and medium altitudes throughout the Philippines.
- Also occurs in Taiwan, Borneo, Celebes, and Sumatra.

Constituents
- Mature flowers tested positive for alkaloids, while young flowers (less than two months old) tested negative for alkaloids.
- Phytochemical screening yielded carbohydrates, glycosides, tannins, and phenolic compounds in methanolic and aqueous extracts, and sterols in all extracts.

Properties
- Purgative, anti-inflammatory, vulnerary.

Parts utilized
Leaves, roots.

Uses
Folkloric
· Traditional healers in Laguna use poultice of leaves for sprains and stomachache. (6)
· Leaves, whole or pounded, used as cataplasm to relieve pains after childbirth.
· Leaves pounded with a little salt, applied to mumps (beke).
· Also used for rheumatism and neuralgia.
· Plaster of leaves used for colic in children.
- Juice of steamed leaves used for colds and cough.
· Leaves, whole or pounded applied to abdomen of parturient with abdominal in difficult labor. (7)
· For colic, leaves are heated over fire, then wiped with coconut oil and applied to the stomach.
· Root used as purgative.
· In South East Asia, C. paniculatum leaf juice extracted with water used to treat sore eyes. Concentrated water extract also used for wounds.
· In Ayurveda, plant pacifies vitiated pitta, inflammation, ulcers, wounds, and skin diseases.

Studies
• Antimicrobial: Methanolic and chloroform extracts of leaves of Cp showed effective antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Candida albicans. (4)
• Note: Above study is attributed to C. paniculatum, a questionable synonym of C. intermedium. No studies have been found attributed particularly to C. intermedium (Kasopangil), an understudied plant that is quite common in the Philippines.

Availability
Wild-crafted.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Clerodendrum and Heathcare: An Overview / Neeta Shrivastava* • Tejas Patel / Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Science and Biotechnology ©2007 Global Science Books
(2)
Initial Studies on Alkaloids from Lombok Medicinal Plants / Surya Hadi and John Bremmer / Molecules 2001, 6, 117-129
(3)
Clerodendrum paniculatum / Ayurvedic medicinal plants
(4)
Preliminary Phytochemical, antimicrobial and toxicity studies on Clerodendrum paniculatum Linn leaves / Praveen.M, Radha K, Hari Kumar R, Padmaja V, Anne Mathew, and Ajith Kumar P / Hygeia.J.D.Med., September 2012; 4(1)
(5)
Clerodendrum intermedium Cham. / Synonyms / The Plant List
(6)
Ethnomedicinal Plants Used by Traditional Healers in Laguna, Philippines / Rainer Roldan Fiscal / Asia Pacific Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, November 2017; Vol 5, No 4: pp 132-137
(7)
Clerodendrum intermedium / William Brown / Minor Products of Philippine Forests,