This plant is native to Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Cambodia, and has spread throughout all countries in Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Mainland China, extending to Melanesia, Polynesia, and the Hawaiian islands. It is also found in North America. Sembukan (Simbuan) can be consumed as a fresh side dish (lalapan) and a vegetable. In East Java, it is used to make the dish pelas or gembrot sembukan. Sembukan also possesses benefits as a traditional medicine.

This plant grows wild in open fields, bushland, or along riverbanks. Sembukan can thrive from the lowlands up to the highlands, with an optimum altitude of 700–1,300 m a.s.l..

• Root: Taproot, with brownish roots.

• Stem: Massive, jointed (beruas), grooved, smooth, and becomes rougher with age. The diameter is 2–5 mm, and brown roots can grow from its nodes.

• Leaves: Green, simple, opposite, ovate (egg-shaped), with a pointed tip. The leaves have pinnate venation, a long stalk, and the leaf surface can be either finely hairy or hairless.

• Flowers: Small, funnel-shaped.

• Fruit: Berry, round, glossy, with a diameter of 4–6 mm, and yellow in color.

• Propagation is done generatively (by seed) as well as vegetatively (by stem cuttings).

It is anti-inflammatory, antidiuretic, carminative, a remedy for stomach aches (gastric ulcers/maag), intestinal disorders, dysentery, sore eyes, sore ears, irregular urination, rheumatism, and ringworm.

Aseperuloside, deacetylasperuloside, paederoside, scandoside, iridoid glycosides, paederosidic acid, 6β-O-sinapoylscandoside, essential oils, arbutin, oleanolic acid, and sitosteron.