The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines Part 3

Dose.--.5-1 gram.

Digest the powder for 24 hours in 500 cc. water, pour the mixture into a filter and add water gradually until the percolate amounts to 5 liters. Evaporate the percolate in a water-bath to the consistency of a pill ma.s.s.

Fluid Extract.--This is prepared in the same manner as the extract and is allowed to remain in the bath until reduced in bulk to 400 grams. It is then removed and 100 grams of alcohol (36) are added.

Dose.--1.75-7 cc.

Chemical Composition.--Fluckiger has isolated a bitter principle a.n.a.logous to berberin; also _buxine_ and _paracine_, which latter received the name _pelosine_ from Wiggers in 1839. The former chemist proposed the name buxine for all these a.n.a.logous principles. Pelosine or buxine is precipitated by a concentrated solution of HCl, by sal ammoniac, by pota.s.sium nitrate and pota.s.sium iodide. He also discovered a neutral substance, _deyamitin_, which crystallizes in microscopic tablets; sulphuric acid added to these gives a pretty dark blue color which changes to green.

Botanical Description.--A climbing shrub with cylindrical woody stem, with leaves simple, alternate, entire, petiolate, ovoid, broad at the base. The inferior surface of the leaf is p.u.b.escent, especially in the intervals between the ribs. Flowers dioecious, small, racemose. Calyx of 12 sepals arranged in 3 whorls, the inner ones broad and petaloid. Corolla of 6 petals arranged in 2 whorls. Stamens sterile or rudimentary in the pistillate flower, the staminate flower bearing 6; anthers innate, 2-celled. Drupes oval, 2 or 3 cm. long, black, closely resembling a grape seed.

NYMPHaeACEae.

Water-Lily Family.

_Nymphaea Lotus_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Lawas_, _Talaylo_, _Tunas_, _Gaway-gaway_, Tag., Vis., Pam.; _Water Lily_, Eng.

Uses.--The anaphrodisiac virtues attributed to this plant and to all the water-lily family are purely imaginary. Its juice being slightly bitter and astringent is used in decoction as an injection in gonorrhoea. It possesses mild narcotic properties, for which some use the juice of the whole plant, rubbing the forehead and temples with it to produce sleep.

Botanical Description.--An aquatic plant, with leaves solitary, terminal, floating on the water, dentate, glabrous, broad, deeply cleft at the base, with a very long petiole. Flowers solitary, persistent in the ripe fruit, oval. Stamens indefinite in fine whorls or verticils.

Habitat.--Common on the sh.o.r.es of the Laguna de Bay.

_Nelumbium nucifera_, Gaertn. (_N. speciosum_, Willd.; _N. Asiatic.u.m_, Rich.; _Cyamus Nelumbo_, Sm.; _C. mysticus_, Salis.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Bayno_, Tag.; _Sukaw_, Iloc.; _Sacred Lotus_, Eng.

Uses.--An infusion of the flowers is used internally in dysentery. In India they use, for diarrhoea and vomiting, the viscid juice obtained from the petioles and the peduncles of the flowers. The rootstock contains a large quant.i.ty of starch which has been utilized for food in the periods of famine which have desolated India and Egypt. This flower was the Sacred Lotus of the Egyptians and the people of India have dedicated it to Lakshmi, the G.o.ddess of health and prosperity.

Infusion.--Petals, dried 5 grams.

Water 250 grams.

Sig. To be taken during 24 hours.

Botanical Description.--An aquatic plant with fleshy rootstock which creeps along the muddy bottoms; from its nodes spring the stalks of the leaves and flowers. Its leaves are alternate, polymorphous, some above and some below the surface of the water, concave in the center whence ribs separate, shield-shaped. Petioles very long, bearing soft, short spines. The flowers white or pink, solitary; peduncle long and, like the petioles, covered with soft, short spines. Calyx of 4-5 unequal sepals, imbricated. Corolla with an indefinite number of unequal petals, the inner ones shorter. Stamens indefinite, inserted in the base of the receptacle. Receptacle expanded above the androecium, in the form of an inverted cone, containing a large number of alveoli with circular openings.

PAPAVERACEae.

Poppy Family.

_Argemone Mexicana_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Kasubhang-aso_, Iloc.

Uses.--Padre Blanco says that the yellow juice of this plant "is used by the natives (Filipinos) to treat fissures of the corners of the eyes."

The negros of Senegal use the decoction of the root to cure gonorrhoea. The milky juice to which Blanco refers is used in different countries to treat various skin diseases, including the cutaneous manifestations of syphilis and leprosy; to remove warts, and as an eye wash in catarrhal conjunctivitis.

The English physicians of India state that it is dangerous to use the milky juice as an application to the eye, although Dymock claims the contrary.

The flowers are narcotic by virtue of a principle resembling morphine, perhaps identical with that alkaloid.

The seeds yield a fixed oil on expression, which is laxative and relieves the pains of colic, probably by virtue of its narcotic properties. Physicians in India praise this oil highly; not only is it a sure and painless purgative, but it is free from the viscidity and disgusting taste of castor-oil; besides it has the advantage of operating in small doses, 2-4 grams. Its activity is proportionate to its freshness. Dr. W. O'Shaughnessy does not value this oil highly, but the experience of many distinguished physicians of India has proved the purgative and other properties that have just been mentioned. Possibly the differences of opinion may arise from the fact that oils from different plants were used in the trials.

The seeds yield a fixed oil, yellow, clear, of sweet taste, density 0.919 at 15; it remains liquid at -5; is soluble in an equal volume of alcohol at 90; characterized by an orange-red color on adding nitric acid. From its soap Frolicher has obtained acetic, valerianic, butyric and benzoic acids. Charbonnier claims to have found morphine in its leaves and capsules. Dragendorf has isolated from the seeds an alkaloid which presents the princ.i.p.al characters of morphine. It is, then, probable that morphine is the narcotic principle possessed by this plant, which is not hard to believe when one considers the family to which it belongs.

Botanical Description.--A plant of American origin nowadays acclimated in almost all warm countries. Its stem is green, p.u.b.escent, 30-40 centimeters high. Leaves alternate, thin, sessile, lanceolate, covered with rigid green thorns. Flowers hermaphrodite, terminal, yellow. Calyx, 3 sepals with conical points. Corolla, 6 rounded petals. Stamens indefinite, free, hypogynous. Ovary free, triangular. Capsule expanded, oblong, angular, thickly set with p.r.i.c.kles: it opens inferiorly by 5 valves.

CRUCIFERae.

Mustard Family.

_Bra.s.sica juncea_, Hook. & Thom. (_Sinapis juncea_, L.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Mostaza_, Sp.; _Mustard_, Eng.

Uses.--The seeds are used in the same way as those of white or black mustard (_Sinapis alba_ and _S. nigra_, L.).

Botanical Description.--Plant with a glabrous stem, leaves sessile, glabrous, lanceolate, the upper ones serrate, the lower ones almost entire. Flowers in racemes. Calyx, 4 sepals. Corolla, 4 rounded, unguiculate petals. Stamens 6, two of them short and the other four longer and united in pairs. Ovary flattened. Seed vessel quadrangular, nodular, glabrous, containing many oval seeds.

_Rapha.n.u.s sativus, L._

Nom. Vulg.--_Rabano_, Sp.; _Radish_, Eng.

Uses.--Used princ.i.p.ally as food; it possesses the antis...o...b..tic properties common to the greater part of the Cruciferae.

It is an herbaceous plant, the root of which is so commonly known that its description would be useless.