The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines Part 39

Nom. Vulg.--_Tangantangan_, _Lingasina_, Tag.; _Tangantangan_, _Tawatawasinga_, Iloc.; _Castor Oil Plant_, Eng.

Uses.--A purgative oil is expressed from the seeds, called "Aceite de Ricino" (castor oil). It operates mechanically in the intestinal tract and its action is rapid and is indicated whenever it is desired simply to empty the intestines without producing any irritating effect; it is, therefore, a purgative indicated in diseases of children, in pregnancy, and in hemorrhoidal congestions where a non-irritating evacuation of the r.e.c.t.u.m is desired. It is an anthelmintic, though not ordinarily given alone, but in combination with other drugs of a purely anthelmintic action, the object being to expel the worms which have been attacked by the specific.

Oil extracted simply by expression is less purgative than that obtained by treating the seeds with bisulphide of carbon and absolute alcohol; also less purgative than the seeds themselves, because it contains only a very small proportion of a drastic principle existing exclusively in the seeds; this principle is completely dissolved in the oil extracted by chemical process.

It is pale yellow in color, very viscid, with a characteristic mouldy odor. The purgative dose is 10-30 grams. A small dose may purge as actively as a larger one provided that the patient drink abundantly after the administration of the drug. The best method of disguising its taste is by giving it in half a cup of very strong, hot coffee. Just before the dose, take a swallow of coffee to disguise the taste even more effectually.

Castor oil enters into the composition of elastic collodion (simple collodion, 30 grams, castor oil, 2 grams). The leaves pounded and boiled are applied as a poultice to foul ulcers.

Botanical Description.--There are two forms of this variety in the Philippines, possessing the same properties and known by the same common name: _R. viridis_, Mull. (_R. communis_, Blanco) and _R. subpurpurascens_, Mull.; the former is the more common and has a glabrous, fistular stem. Leaves peltate, palmately cleft in 7 or 9 lobules, lanceolate, serrate. Petioles long. Flowers greenish, monoecious, the staminate ones in large panicled cl.u.s.ters below the pistillate. Filaments numerous, subdivided into several anther-bearing branches. Pistillate flowers, 3 sepals, 3 styles. Seed vessel, 3 p.r.i.c.kly capsules, containing solitary seeds.

The _R. subpurpurascens_ is distinguished from the former by bearing 2 glandules at the base of the leaves, the mulberry color of which latter suggests its common name, _Tangantangan na morado_, Tag., Vis.

Habitat.--Very common in Luzon, Mindanao and other islands.

URTICACEae.

Nettle Family.

_Artocarpus integrifolia_, Willd.

Nom. Vulg.--_Nangka_, Tag.; _Jack Fruit Tree_, Eng.

Uses.--The huge fruit of this tree is well known to the Filipinos and well liked by them as an article of food, eaten fresh or in sweet preserves. The arils and pulpy envelopes of the seeds are the parts eaten, also the seeds themselves, boiled or roasted. According to Padre Mercado the roasted seeds have an aphrodisiac action.

The heated and powdered leaves are applied to wounds and given internally for congestions. The resin of the trunk is a useful application to ulcers and in India they give it internally to cure la melena, the dose, one "tola" mixed with the same amount of _manga_ resin and a little lime water. The same resin if heated makes an excellent cement for broken china.

Botanical Description.--A tree, 20 or more in height, with abundant milky sap. Leaves alternate, oval, acute at both ends, slightly wavy and revolute borders, tough, glabrous and dark green upper surface; light green, slightly rough under surface. Petioles short. Flowers greenish, monoecious, growing on root, trunk and branches. Calyx very small, monophyllous, of about 7 deciduous lobules. Staminate: On a club-shaped receptacle, 3' or 4' long, bristling with the stamens; filaments very short, anthers 2-celled. Pistillate: On a common, oblong receptacle which ripens to the great fruit; style 1, short; rarely 2 divergent styles; stigmas acute. Fruit about size and shape of a small watermelon, beset with many sharp eminences, containing many seeds enveloped in thick arils.

Habitat.--It grows in all parts of the Archipelago and is commonly known.

_Laportea gaudichaudiana_, Wedd. (_Urtica umbellata_, _U. ferox_, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Lingaton_, _Lipa_, _Apariagua_ (?), Tag., Vis.; _Lipangdoton_, Pam.

Uses.--The Padre Mercado writes as follows concerning the properties of this plant: "The leaves, applied with salt in the form of a plaster, purify dog bites, foul, putrid, malignant and cankerous ulcers; they cure boils, contusions and all abscesses; mixed with wax they may be applied for obstruction of the spleen; mashed with the juice and inserted in the nose they arrest nose-bleed; cooked with snails they soften the stomach, excite the secretion of urine and dissipate flatus; the juice given as a gargle aborts inflammation of the epiglottis. The seeds mixed with wine are a s.e.xual excitant and "clear out" the womb; taken with syrup they relieve dyspnoea, pain in the side and inflammation of the lungs and force up the humors from the chest; it may be mixed with medicines that corrupt the flesh (sic). The grated root drunk with wine relieves painful flatulence. I myself (continues the Padre Mercado) have experimented with a woman who suffered with painful flatulence and this remedy relieved her."

We repeat that all the foregoing is copied from the writings of Padre Mercado and we offer it as a therapeutic curiosity.

P. Blanco states that merely to touch the leaves causes an intolerable itching.

Botanical Description.--A small tree, 12-15 high, trunk richly branched. Leaves opposite, bunched at the ends of the branches, notched at the base, long, ovate, serrate, hairy on both surfaces. Flowers yellowish-white, dioecious. Staminate: In compound racemes; calyx 4 parts; corolla none; stamens 4, inserted on the base of the calyx. Pistillate: Flowers in 2-forked umbel, flat, very large; calyx, none; stamens none; stigma 1; seed heart-shaped.

Habitat.--Very common in all the fields and in the mountains. Blooms in June.

CASUARINEae.

Beefwood Family.

_Casuarina Sumatrana_, Jung. (_C. equisetifolia_, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Agoho_, Tag.; _Malabohok_, _Agoho_, Vis.; _Aro_, _Karo_, _Agoo_, Iloc.

Uses.--The bark is astringent by virtue of the large quant.i.ty of tannin it contains. Its princ.i.p.al use is in decoction in the treatment of diarrhoea, dysentery and haemoptysis; it is also given in amenorrhoea, though it is apt to increase the pain. Externally it is used as a wash for contusions and ulcers.

Another species, _C. equisetifolia_, Forst., confounded with the former species by the natives, has the same therapeutic applications.

Botanical Description.--A tree with stellately arranged straight branches. Leaves stellate, long, narrow, linear, 4-grooved. They have been compared to the tail of a horse and the tail of a certain bird--the casobar. Staminate and pistillate flowers greenish, on different parts of the same stalk. Staminate, in small aments. Pistillate on small globose aments; calyx proper of the floweret, a coa.r.s.e scale; corolla none; ovary conical; styles 2, flattened, divergent; stigmas acute. Fruit: Each floweret produces a woody seed-vessel, bivalved, ovate, glabrous, with a small seed ending in an oval wing; all these seed vessels joined form a small cone about 1' long.

Habitat.--Very common in Ilocos, Tarlak, Binangonang of Lampong and N. Ecija.

MONOCOTYLEDONS.

MUSACEae.

Banana Family.

_Musa paradisiaca_, L.

_M. sapientum_, L.

Nom. Vulg. _Platano_, Sp.; _Saging_, Tag., etc.; _Banana_, Eng.

Uses.--The fruit produced by the various varieties of the banana plant const.i.tutes one of the most wholesome and delicious of foods, appreciated by natives and Europeans alike. According to Boussingaul its nutritive value is greater than that of the potato and it may be used constantly without ill effects. Bananas contain a large percentage of sugar and mucilage. In India they dry them in the sun, as figs and grapes are treated in other countries and thus preserve them for long voyages by sea or land; eaten in conjunction with animal food they are a strong preventive of scurvy. If eaten when thoroughly ripe they have a laxative effect.

The young and tender leaves are used in the Philippines as a protective dressing for ulcers, dermat.i.tis, burns and cantharidal or other artificial blisters. Before applying to the affected surface the leaf is heated to make it more flexible and coated with a thin layer of cocoanut oil or other fatty substance.

In the dispensaries of India they also use the leaves in this way, thus protecting and at the same time maintaining the moisture of the part. Dr. Waring recommends the practice and Dr. Van Someren follows it in the application of water dressings, having subst.i.tuted banana leaves for gutta-percha.