The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines Part 42

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 diaph.o.r.etic 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.

GRAMINEae.

Gra.s.s Family.

_Zea Mays_, L.

Nom. Vulg.--_Maiz_, 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 ta.s.sels 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 ta.s.sels has been put on the market, but it is better to administer a decoction made from 20 grams of ta.s.sel 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 Alb.u.minoids 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 Gra.s.s_, 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 Garcia, 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 gra.s.s 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.--_Canamiel_, _Cana de azucar_, _Cana 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, j.a.pan 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, Senor D. Regino Garcia, 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 s.e.m.e.ntera"

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 subst.i.tute 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.

BAMBUSEae.

Bamboo Family.

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

Linnaeus and Blanco include in the genus _Bambus_ all the different species of bamboo to which the Spaniards have given the general name of _cana_. 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 mult.i.tude of household utensils and furniture.

The variety _B. arundinacea_, Retz. (_B. arundo_, Blanco), _Kawayag-totoo_, 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 "tabas.h.i.+r" 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.