The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines - Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera (spicy books to read txt) 📗
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Cissampelos Pareira, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Sansawsansawan, Tag.; Chinchaochinchauan, Sp.-Fil.
Uses.—Although this plant formerly bore the Portuguese name of Pareira brava, the U. S. P. and B. P. recognize now under this title only the root of Chondrodendron tomentosum. It is diuretic and tonic and apparently exercises an astringent and sedative action upon the mucous membrane of the genito-urinary organs. The root is used in acute and chronic cystitis.
In Brazil it is used as a diaphoretic and as such is employed in cases of venomous snake bites. It is also used there as an emmenagogue and diuretic, in intermittent fevers, dropsy and suppression of the lochia in women recently confined.
It is official in the Pharmacopœia of India.
Dose.—30–100 grams.
Boil 15 minutes; filter and add enough water to bring the total bulk up to 600 cc.
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 mass.
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.—Flückiger has isolated a bitter principle analogous 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 analogous principles. Pelosine or buxine is precipitated by a concentrated solution of HCl, by sal ammoniac, by potassium nitrate and potassium 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 pubescent, especially in the intervals between the ribs. Flowers diœcious, 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.
Water-Lily Family.
Nymphæa 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 gonorrhœa. 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 shores of the Laguna de Bay.
Nelumbium nucifera, Gaertn. (N. speciosum, Willd.; N. Asiaticum, 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 diarrhœa and vomiting, the viscid juice obtained from the petioles and the peduncles of the flowers. The rootstock contains a large quantity 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 goddess of health and prosperity.
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 andrœcium, in the form of an inverted cone, containing a large number of alveoli with circular openings.
Poppy Family.
Argemone Mexicana, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Kasubhag̃-āso, 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 gonorrhœa. 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 principal 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, pubescent, 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 prickles: it opens inferiorly by 5 valves.
Mustard Family.
Brassica 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.
Raphanus sativus, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Rábano, Sp.; Radish, Eng.
Uses.—Used principally as food; it possesses the antiscorbutic properties common to the greater part of the Cruciferæ.
It is an herbaceous plant, the root of which is so commonly known that its description would be useless.
Caper Family.
Cleome viscosa, L. (C. icosandra, L.; Polanisia viscosa, DC.)
Nom. Vulg.—Balabalanoyan, Apoyapoyan, Tag.; Wild Mustard, Eng.
Uses.—The seeds possess the same properties as those of mustard and are used in place of the latter in Manila. In America the leaves are used as a poultice in otitis, their action being rubefacient. In India the seeds are given internally for their anthelmintic and carminative effect; the dose is one teaspoonful twice a day. The juice of the leaves mixed with cocoanut oil is used in the form of eardrops in suppurative otitis.
The natives give the same common name to the Gynandropsis pentaphylla, DC. (Cleome pentaphylla, L.; C. altiacea or C. alliodora, Blanco), which is distinguished from the former by its six stamens inserted on the pistil and its violet-colored stem. Its therapeutic properties are identical with those of the Cleome viscosa. Dr. Sir W. Jones believes that the plant possesses antispasmodic properties, basing his belief on its odor, which resembles asafetida, though not so disagreeable. In India the juice of the leaves is a popular remedy for earache. It is also used there as a rubefacient.
Botanical Description.—An annual, the stem channeled and bearing glandular hairs. Leaves compound, alternate; leaflets lanceolate with glandular hairs. Calyx, 4 sepals. Corolla, 4 petals, yellow. Stamens 14–16, encircling the pistil. Seed vessels cylindrical, with channels and glandular hairs. The whole plant is sticky and emits a garlicky odor.
Cratæva religiosa, Forst.
Nom. Vulg.—Salig̃bobog, Tag.; Balay-namuk, Iloc.
Uses.—It is in common use in India as a tonic and stomachic. It seems also to possess laxative and diuretic properties. In Concan the juice of the leaves mixed with cocoanut oil is used as a liniment in rheumatism.
Dose.—50–100 grams a day as a tonic or stomachic.
Botanical Description.—A shrub 15–20° high with compound trifoliate leaves with long petioles; leaflets lanceolate, acuminate, smooth, dark green. Calyx of 4 imbricated sepals. Corolla of 4 unguiculate petals, between white and straw color, 1′ long. Stamens indefinite, violet-colored. Ovary unilocular, many-ovuled. Berry spherical with many seeds buried in pulp.
Habitat.—Blanco has seen the plant growing in Ilocos and Imus.
Bixa Orellana, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Atsuiti, Achuiti, Tag.; Achiote, Achuete, Sp.-Fil.; Annatto, Eng.
Uses.—The principal use of the seeds is in cookery and everybody knows the yellow color which Filipino cooks impart to almost all their dishes. In medicine the fine powder that covers the seeds is used as a hæmostatic and internally as a stomachic. On account of the astringent qualities of the coloring matter it is used in some countries to treat dysentery, a fact which suggests its possible therapeutic or rather hygienic usefulness as a condiment. It seems to effect a cure in dysentery in the same manner as ipecac.
In India, Brazil and the Antilles the natives make a sort of paste of achuete known under the name of rocu. There is a hard, odorless form of rocu and another soft, unctuous, of a delicate
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