Tongkat Ali

Tongkat Ali Tree

  Eurycoma longifolia (commonly called tongkat ali or pasak bumi) is a flowering plant in the family Simaroubaceae, native to Indonesia, Malaysia, and, to a lesser extent, Thailand, Vietnam, and Laos. It is also known under the names penawar pahit, penawar bias, bedara merah, bedara putih, lempedu pahit, payong ali, tongkat baginda, muntah bumi, petala bumi. 

Many of the common names refer to the plant's medicinal use and extreme bitterness. Penawar pahit translates simply as "bitter charm" or "bitter medicine". Older literature, such as a 1953 article in the Journal of Ecology, may cite only penawar pahit as the plant's common Malay name.

The plant, medium size slender shrub reaching 10 m in height, often unbranched with reddish brown petioles. Leaves compound, even pinnate reaching 1 m in length. Each compound leaf consists of 30-40 leaflets, lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate. Each leaflet is about 5–20 cm long, 1.5–6 cm wide, much paler on the ventral side. Inflorecense axillary, in large brownish red panicle, very pubescent with very fine, soft, grandular trichomes. 

In Malaysia, the common use of E. longifolia (apart from traditional medicine and dietary supplements) are as food and drink additive. Specifically, it is a common ingredient for coffee and functional beverage positioned as energy drinks.

Given the availability of abundant and cheap varieties of herbs (and the significant higher pricing of well-extracted E. longifolia), instances where products may falsely claim the content of its ingredient is rampant. An electronic tongue detecting the presence and concentration of quassinoids to determine the use of genuine E longifolia was invented.

Quassinoids, the biologically active components of E. longifolia root, are extremely bitter. They are named after quassin, the long-isolated bitter principle of the quassiatree. Quassin is regarded the most bitter substance in nature, 50 times more bitter than quinine.