Chapter 18

Uses.--The decoction of the leaves is used in the Philippines as an expectorant. The plant is official in the Pharmacopoeia of India as an emetic and in small doses is nauseant and diaphoretic. As an emetic the dose of the fresh juice of the root is 8-16 grams every 10 minutes till vomiting occurs. Dr. W. O'Shaughnessy, writing from Bengal, states that this is the only indigenous and abundant emetic plant of which he has experience, which acts without producing griping, purging, or other unpleasant symptoms. In a communication to Dr. Waring he remarks that it is a good emetic and diaphoretic whenever ipecacuanha is not at hand but that it should be regarded not so much as a substitute for that article as a resource in case of need.

The leaf juice is used in India to drop into the ears for disease of these organs.

One of the infinite remedies used by the Filipinos under the name of "contrapoisons," without specifying or knowing what poison, is the powdered root of _Crinum_, given internally with a little water. They also use the leaves locally for the itch, bruising them and rubbing the affected parts energetically with them. I may note here in passing, what I have written before: that the Filipinos have from time immemorial been familiar with the sarcopt of scabies (Kahaw) which they pick out with a needle or spine of some fish or vegetable.

Botanical Description.--A plant with globose, scaly root. Leaves keeled or ridged. Flowers white, on a flattened stalk, on a spathe of 2 leaflets and several dry threads enclosing 4 flowerets. Corolla funnel-form, tube long and triangular; limb cut in 6 horizontal lanceolate lobes. Stamens 6, shorter than corolla. Anthers long. Stigma with 3 points. Seed vessel inferior, 3-celled, each cell containing a seed.

_Habitat._--Very common on the seashore and in groves of mangrove trees. Blooms in July.

LILIACEÆ.

Lily Family.

_Aloes Barbadensis_, Mill. (_A. humilis_, Blanco; _A. vera_, L.; _A. vulgaris_, Banck.; _A. Indica_, Royl.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Sabila_, Tag.; _Dilang boaya_, Vis.; _Aloes_, Eng.

Uses.--This species is one of those which produce the substance known in pharmacy as _aloes_, which is the juice of the leaf evaporated to the consistency of an extract. It is official in all pharmacopoeias and its properties are known to the Filipino herb-doctors. They use the fresh juice of the leaves as a stimulant of the scalp in baldness and locally in contusions. Aloes is a slow purgative and its irritating action on the lower portion of the large intestine extends to the genito-urinary organs. It is, therefore, an emmenagogue and its prolonged use causes hemorrhoids, especially in man. It is contraindicated where there is disease of the genito-urinary organs or rectum. As it increases the secretion of bile it is useful in certain hepatic diseases. It is used in small doses as a tonic in dyspepsia. The tonic dose is 1/2-20 centigrams; purgative, 15-50 of the extract, preferably in pill form. It is customary to associate it with other purgatives.

Botanical Description.--A stemless plant, the leaves springing immediately from the root as in the pineapple, joined at the base, straight, ligulate, very fleshy and becoming thinner toward the end, with stiff thorns along the edges. Flowers between yellow and red outside and straw-colored inside, in racemes on a cylindrical scape 3° or more high, sometimes ramose, peduncles very short. Corolla cylindrical, somewhat incurved, cleft to the middle in 6 parts, 3 external, acute and superposed on the others, obtuse at the apex and of different color. Stamens 6, inserted at the nectiferous base of the ovary and of the same length as the corolla. Anthers erect. Ovary cylindrical with 6 furrows. Stigma obtuse, with raveled edges. The seed vessel ovoid, 3-valved, 3-celled, with 2 seeds in each, furnished with 3 spongy wings.

Habitat.--Common in gardens.

_Allium sativum_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Ajo_, Sp.; _Bawang_, Tag.; _Garlic_, Eng.

_Allium Cepa_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Cebolla_, Sp.; _Lasuna_, _Sibuyas_, Tag.; _Onion_, Eng.

Uses.--The garlic and the onion are used to excess as condiments in Philippine as well as Spanish cooking. Both are difficult of digestion and communicate a very disagreeable odor to the breath, intolerable to those who are unaccustomed to it. Garlic possesses the singular property, familiar to many students and soldiers, of inducing a transient fever if introduced within the anus. When bruised and applied to the skin it has a counter-irritant action which makes it useful in the treatment of rheumatism, but the odor is so disagreeable that it is not worth while to use it for that purpose when we have so many other medicines which produce the same effect without being objectionable. It is also used locally for the bites of venomous animals.

The onion is used cooked as a poultice over the bladder and internally for various catarrhs. It is better to abstain from the therapeutic and culinary use of products so indigestible and so malodorous.

Botanical Description.--These plants are so well known in all parts of the world that a description of them would be superfluous.

PALMÆ.

Palm Family.

_Areca Catechu_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Bonga_, Tag.; _Betel-nut Palm_, _Areca_, Eng.

Uses.--The seeds form part of a masticatory very common throughout the extreme Orient, known as _Buyo_ and composed of a betel leaf, a little slaked lime, and a slice of the fruit of the bonga, known as _Siri_ in Indo-China and among the Malays. It is so common that it is hard to find a man or woman who does not use it. The saliva of those who use it is red and of a strong odor, and its careless use in time blackens the teeth and makes the breath extremely disagreeable. Habitual chewers consider it a tonic of the mouth and stomach and a general stimulant as well. It probably does possess these properties but they are reversed in the case of persons who use it immoderately for they lose appetite, become salivated, and the whole organism degenerates. The carbonized and powdered fruit is used as a dentifrice but its virtues are doubtless identical with those of any vegetable charcoal, _i. e._, absorbent and antiseptic.

One unaccustomed to the use of bonga and chewing it for the first time, usually experiences a most disagreeable combination of symptoms; constriction of the oesophagus, a sensation of heat in the head and face, the latter becoming red and congested; at the same time dizziness and precordial distress are experienced. The same phenomena occur in certain persons after eating palmito salad or the tender central portion of the bonga and of other palms.

The flowers are eaten in salad like the above-mentioned _palmito_. The seed is astringent and tænifuge; for the latter purpose it is given internally as a powder in a dose of from 16 to 24 grams. Its action is uncertain. The catechu which is obtained in India from the Bonga differs from that obtained from the _Acacia Catechu_ and is a tonic analogous to rhatany and cinchona.

The seeds contain about 14% of a fatty crystalline material which melts at 39°, and after saponification yields a crystalline, fatty acid that may be regarded as a mixture of lauric and muriatic acids. They also contain about 14% of a red, amorphous tonic material which, after drying, is but slightly soluble in cold or hot water.

The lower part of the petiole of the leaves is thin and broad, ensheathing the trunk, is as tough as pasteboard when dry and is used in the Philippines as wrapping paper; Dr. Bholanauth Bose and other physicians of India use it as a material for splints in fractures, a practice which might well be imitated in Manila and especially in the country.

Botanical Description.--A well-known palm with slender stem, surrounded by many circles; it grows to about the same height as the coco-nut palm or less. The flowers spring in bunches of long, thread-like spikes from the trunk a little below the crown of leaves at the base of the long, smooth, green, sheath-like petioles which clasp the trunk; each spike bears many staminate and a few pistillate flowers. The fruit is about the size and shape of a hen's egg, the husk tow-like or filamentose, the kernel pinkish or light red.

Habitat.--Grows throughout the islands.

_Cocos nucifera_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Coco_, Sp.-Fil.; _Niog_, Tag.; _Coco-nut Palm_, Eng.

Uses.--This plant is, perhaps, the most useful in the Philippines. Without it and the bamboo plant the people of the Archipelago would not know how to live. It produces vinegar, an alcoholic drink called _tuba_ or _coco-wine_, an oil, an edible nut, and its leaves are used instead of nipa to roof the huts.

Tuba is an opaline, slightly sweet liquid, with an agreeable taste, which rapidly becomes acid under the influence of the heat. A flowering or fruit-bearing stalk, which has not been incised before, is chosen and encircled with several rings of rope or rattan. The stalk is then cut and a bamboo vessel called a _bombón_ is hung to receive the sap which escapes during the night. This liquid is valuable as a drink for those who are debilitated, suffering from pulmonary catarrh, and even for consumptives, who are accustomed to drink it every morning, sometimes with marvelous results, according to reports. The heat of the day rapidly ferments the tuba, converting it into a mild vinegar, which is widely used for domestic purposes in the Philippines. When fermented and distilled it produces a weak alcohol of disagreeable taste called coco-wine.

The ripe fruit contains a rather soft and savory meat which is generally eaten mixed with the clear, sweet coco-nut milk. Later the meat becomes firmer and is used as a food and an oil much used in the islands is extracted from it. To extract the oil the meat is grated and pressed until all the juice is extracted. This is called the milk and when boiled is converted almost completely into oil. Cocoanut milk has an agreeable taste and may in some cases take the place of cow's milk. It is apt to produce diarrhoea, however, which action may be bad for some but on the other hand good for others, such as the habitually constipated. Both the meat and the milk are widely used by the natives in making sweets.

In the greater part of the islands it is the only oil used for illumination. As a medicine it is employed internally as a purgative and externally in the treatment of scores of troubles in which the good results obtained are due, not to the oil but to the massage used in rubbing it in. It has the reputation of stimulating the growth of the hair and all the natives and some Europeans use it lavishly as a hair ointment. When fresh its odor is agreeable, but it easily becomes rancid and assumes a most disagreeable odor. In the Visayan Islands they make an oil of a nauseous odor which they call in Manila _Caracoa_. It is used only for illumination and by the poor.

At a temperature of 20° or more the oil remains liquid; it is colorless when fresh and properly extracted. It solidifies at 18° and two kinds of soap are made of it; one soft and exceedingly cheap called "Quiapo"; the other hard, white, of a high quality, but as a rule containing an excess of lime which in time is deposited in a fluorescent film on its surface.

In India the root is employed in the treatment of dysentery.

Botanical Description.--A tree most familiar to every one.

Habitat.--Common in all parts of the Archipelago.

_Nipa fruticans_, Wurmb.

Nom. Vulg.--_Nipa_, Sp.-Fil.; _Sasa_, Tag.

Uses.--The dry leaves of this palm are generally used in the villages of Manila Province, Pampanga, Bulacan and other provinces in the construction of roofs and walls of houses, which are therefore called "nipa houses." The decoction of the fresh leaves is used as a lotion for indolent ulcers, and a popular preserve is made from the fruit.

Like the coco and following the same process the nipa yields a liquid also called tuba and possessing properties identical with those of the former plant. The weak alcohol distilled from it has some repute in the treatment of conjunctivitis, for which purpose a few drops are mixed with a small quantity of water and the eyes are washed with it several times a day. This alcohol, improperly called wine of nipa, has a characteristically unpleasant odor which makes it impracticable for medicinal or industrial use. Several chemists have attempted to remove the characteristic odor from nipa alcohol, but their results had always been negative because the odorous principle was distilled over at the same temperature as the alcohol. Finally a distinguished Filipino chemist, D. Anacleto del Rosario, perfected a process of producing from the nipa tuba an absolute alcohol perfectly free from the characteristic odor; an alcohol, in fact, possessing all the qualities of chemically pure alcohol, and of such a high grade that it was awarded the first prize at the last World's Fair in Paris.

Botanical Description.--A palm about 6° high with long, pinnate leaves with leaflets which separate, at maturity, like those of the coco palm. Flowers monoecious, in a spathe. Fruit, many pyramidal drupes joined together, but easily separable. The outer covering of each drupe is hard, the inner part tow-like; seed enveloped in a sort of fleshy white meat.

Habitat.--Salt water marshes, especially in Pampanga and the Visayan Islands.

CYPERACEÆ.

Sedge Family.

_Cyperus rotundus_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Mutha_, Tag.; _Botobotones_, Vis.; _Mota_, _Malaapolid_, _Sursur_, _Onoran_, _Kusung_, _Omadiung_, _Galonalpas_, Pam.; _Nutgrass_ or _Coco-grass_, Eng.

Uses.--The root possesses stimulant, diaphoretic, diuretic and emmenagogue properties. In the Philippines it is used internally for dysentery, and in India for the same purpose and as a vermifuge. It is given as a tonic in gastro-intestinal diseases, and General Hardwick has reported good results with it in cholera; as he reported only two cases, his testimony is not of much value.

The Chinese use the dry or roasted root, especially in inflammation of the viscera and uterine diseases. They also attribute to it diuretic, emmenagogue and anthelmintic properties. In Java and India they use it for gonorrhoea, and in Mauritius as a diaphoretic and astringent. In the Philippines the bruised root is applied to the face for toothache.

Botanical Description.--The root is ovoid, ranging in size from that of a hazel-nut to that of a walnut, composed of a white, spongy substance. Leaves sword-shaped, ensheathing the stem. Flowers in a compound umbel on the end of the stalk which is naked, long and triangular. The umbellets are alternate, awl-shaped, with distinct flowers. Calyx universal, with 2 sword-shaped leaflets. Calyx proper, a very small, ridged scale. Corolla none. Stamens 3. Filaments long, inserted on the base of the ovary. Anthers long and straight. Style 1. Stigmas 3, simple, revolute. Fruit 1. Seed oblong, 3-sided, glabrous.

Habitat.--Common in Luzon and Panay. Blooms in June and July.

GRAMINEÆ.

Grass Family.

_Zea Mays_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Maíz_, Sp.; _Maize_, _Corn_, Eng.

Uses.--Corn is an extensive article of diet in the Philippines, but has the reputation of being indigestible. This is true when it is eaten in the grain, but in the form of meal it is easily digested and highly nutritious. The tassels have been used in the Philippines from time immemorial in decoction as a diuretic, for which property they received notice in the _Medical World_ of Paris about the year 1876. The entire plant is diuretic and the natives give the decoction of the stalk for various diseases of the bladder and kidneys. An extract of the tassels has been put on the market, but it is better to administer a decoction made from 20 grams of tassel to 1 liter of water to be taken at will during the day. Rademaker and Fischer give the following chemical composition:

Fixed oil 5.25 Resin, crystalline matter and chlorophyl 3.25 Maizenic acid 2.25 Sugar and gum 19.50 Albuminoids 3.50 Salts and extracts 5.50 Cellulose 37.00 Water 20.00

The fixed oil is bright yellow, saponifiable by potash, soluble in chloroform and ether, insoluble in alcohol, solidifies at 10°.

Habitat.--Very common in all parts of the islands.

_Andropogon Schoenanthes_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Salay_, _Tanglad_, Tag.; _Paja de Meca_, Sp.-Fil.; _Baliyoko_, Vis.; _Geranium Grass_, Eng.

Uses.--The Filipino women use the leaves to perfume their gogo hair-wash. The decoction of the leaves is used internally as a diuretic (10 grams to a liter of water) and also to bathe pregnant women. The roots also are diuretic.

A Manila pharmacist, D. Rosendo García, has obtained a good quality of the fixed oil of this plant. In India they call this essence _rusa_, _geranium_ and _gin-gembre_ (nimar oil, Eng.); the annual export from Bombay is over 40,000 English pounds. It is dextrogyrous and its formula is C_5_H_4_.

Another species, the _A. nardus_, L., commonly called "raiz de mora" (mulberry root), "citronella," Eng., possesses the same therapeutic properties as the former. It also possesses an agreeable perfume and yields an essential oil, which, like rusa, is used to adulterate Attar of Roses.

The dried root is widely used in the Philippines and in Europe as well, to preserve clothing from moths and other destructive insects, at the same time giving them a sweet odor. In India the decoction is used internally, 10 grams to a liter of water, in the treatment of rheumatism and as a diuretic.

Botanical Description.--An indigenous grass with sword-shaped leaves about 4° high, tapering at the base, possessing a sweet odor. Root thick, irregular, rough, formed by the union of several small rootlets.

_Saccharum officinarum_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Cañamiel_, _Caña de azúcar_, _Caña dulc_, Sp.; _Tubo_, Tag.; _Sugar Cane_, Eng.

Uses.--The Filipinos are very fond of the fresh cane. The juice, which is extracted by means of primitive wooden presses, is used as a drink mixed with lemon juice or vino and is sold in markets and public places as a popular beverage on hot days. A tepid juice, extracted from heated cane is given for catarrhal troubles. This use of the juice is the only one peculiar to the Philippines. Its general use and properties are universally familiar and are amply treated in the materia medica.

Botanical Description.--This plant is so universally familiar that it is unnecessary to describe it. More than 20 varieties are found in the Philippines.

Habitat.--Throughout the islands, especially in the Island of Negros and the Luzon Provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija.

_Oriza_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Arroz_, Sp.; _Palay_, Tag. (the plant and the unhusked rice); _Bigas_, Tag. (the husked rice); _Rice_, Eng.

Uses.--All the people of Indo-China, China, Japan and the greater part of the Indian Archipelago eat rice as Europeans do bread.

In the Philippines an immense variety of rice grows and in the World's Fair at Paris, in 1889, Señor D. Regino García, of Manila, presented a unique collection of 147 varieties. The rice grown in high lands above irrigation is called "arroz de secano" and mountain rice, and that grown in low and irrigated land is called "arroz de sementera" and swamp rice. The two kinds are equally valuable as food.

The proportion of starch in rice is large, but it contains but a small amount of gluten, and therefore a large amount must be eaten in order to obtain sufficient nutritive elements.

Water 5.00 Starch 85.07 Parenchyma 4.80 Nitrogenous matter 3.68 Crystallizable sugar 0.29 Gummy matter 1.71 Oil 0.13 Phosphate of lime 0.40 Chloride of potash, phosphate of potash, acetic acid, calcareous vegetable salt, salt of potash, sulphur Traces.

In the Filipino therapeutics rice has an extensive use, especially in the form of a decoction called _cange_, which is commonly given in the treatment of diarrhoea and dysentery, with good results. Cooked as a sort of mush it may be used as a substitute for linseed poultices and has the great advantage of not becoming rancid. Roasted and powdered it is dusted upon wounds or abrasions of the skin and forms a dry and absorbent covering under which they heal rapidly.

It has lately been claimed that beriberi is due to a microorganism found in rice under certain abnormal conditions; this claim is not yet firmly established and beriberi is still one of the many problems in medicine which are awaiting solution.

Habitat.--All parts of the Archipelago.

BAMBUSEÆ.

Bamboo Family.

Nom. Vulg.--_Caña_, Sp.; _Bamboo_, Eng.

Linnæus and Blanco include in the genus _Bambus_ all the different species of bamboo to which the Spaniards have given the general name of _caña_. The plant is of incomparable value to the natives of the Philippines; they build their houses of it, make agricultural and industrial instruments of it, use it in all the varied apparatus of their fisheries and for a multitude of household utensils and furniture.

The variety _B. arundinacea_, Retz. (_B. arundo_, Blanco), _Kawayag-totóo_, Tag., is the largest and most generally employed in making houses and furniture. The tender shoots prepared in lime water are edible but have the deserved reputation of being difficult of digestion.

The variety _Schizostachyum acutiflorum_, Munro (_B. diffusa_, Blanco), _Osiw_, _Bokawy_, Tag., is less used. The shoots are used to treat opacity of the cornea, for which purpose they are cut when about a palm in height, the outer leaves removed, and the center soaked over night with a little sugar candy. The following day the water in the bottom of the jar is collected and used to paint the cornea.

The variety _Dendrocalamus sericens_, Munro (_B. mitis_, Blanco), _Taywanak_, Tag., is also used in medicine. Its abundant sap is given internally in the treatment of phthisis.

All of the above species and the _Dendrocalamus flagellifer_, Munro (_B. levis_, Blanco), _Boho_, Tag., produce at their joints a hard porcelain-like substance, friable, of opaline color, called "bamboo stone" or "tabashir" in India, where, as well as in the Philippines and Indo-China, it has great repute among the popular remedies. It is given in venereal diseases, hiccough, hemorrhage, fevers and other diseases. As a matter of fact, it is an almost inert substance, the imaginary virtues of which originated, doubtless, in the apparently remarkable fact that a stone (?) was produced inside of a vegetable.

The analysis of M. Guibourt is as follows:

Silicon 96.04 Water 2.94 Lime and potassium 0.13 Organic material Traces.

INDEX OF PLANTS

ACCORDING TO THERAPEUTIC PROPERTIES.

_Alteratives._--Anona muricata.--Tinospora crispa.--Raphanus sativus.--Bombax malabaricus.--Oxalis corniculata.--Citrus acida and C. Bigaradia.--Mangifera Indica.--Pongamia glabra.--Lawsonia alba.--Hydrocotyle Asiatica.--Alangium Lamarkii.--Oldenlandia corymbosa.--Calotropis gigantea.--Ehretia buxifolia.--Solanum nigrum.--Cassytha filiformis--Euphorbia Tirucalli.--Phyllanthus reticulatus.