The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines Part 7

Nom. Vulg.--_Takurangan_, _Aronganan_, _Kayanga_, _Tapulanga_, _Gumamila_, Tag., Vis., Pam.; _Rose of China_, Eng.

Uses.--The flowers are emollient and are widely used by the Filipinos as a domestic remedy; they are bruised and applied to boils, tumors and all sorts of inflammations. The decoction is much used internally in bronchial catarrh for its sudorific effect.

The Chinese use the trunk bark as an emmenagogue, calling it Fu-yong-pi.

Botanical Description.--A small tree about 7 high commonly called _Gumamela_ in Manila; the leaves are ovate, acute, with about 5 nerves, serrate from the middle to the apex, hairs growing spa.r.s.ely on both surfaces, with a small group of dark-colored, deciduous hairs growing on the lower part of the midrib. Petioles short with 2 stipules at the base. Calyx double, the outer part divided almost to the base into 6-8 parts; the inner cylindrical, divided in 5. Corolla large, splendid scarlet-red, often double, on slender peduncles. Styles numerous. Fruit identical with that of the _Hibiscus tiliaceus_.

Habitat.--Universally common in the Philippines.

_Thespesia populnea_, Corr.

Nom. Vulg.--_Babuy_ or _Bobuy gubat_, Tag.; _Bulakan_, Vis.

Uses.--The fruit yields a yellow juice which is used locally in the itch and other cutaneous troubles, after first was.h.i.+ng the affected part with a decoction of the roots and leaves. The bark is astringent and is used as a decoction in the treatment of dysentery and hemorrhoids.

Botanical Description.--A tree of the second order with leaves 4-5'

long, spa.r.s.e, 5-nerved, heart-shaped, broad, acute, entire, glabrous, 6 small glands on the lower face of the base. Petioles of equal length with the leaves. Flowers large, axillary, solitary. Calyx double, the outer portion deciduous, consisting of 3 small, acute leaflets inserted on the base of the inner calyx; the inner is bell-shaped, larger than the outer, with 5 inconspicuous, persistent teeth. Corolla four times longer than the calyx, of 5 fleshy, fluted petals, their borders overlapping, much broader above. Stamens very numerous, arranged around and along a column. Filaments long. Anthers of half-moon shape. Style 1, very thick. Stigma cleft in 5 parts, which are twisted in spiral form. Seed vessels about the size of a filbert, 5-sided, with 5 apartments each containing 5 ovoid seeds attached by separate seed stalks to the central axis of the ovary. Seeds not woolly.

Habitat.--Mandaloya Tayabas, Iloilo.

_Gossypium herbaceum_, L. (_G. Indic.u.m_, Lam.; _G. Capas_, Rumph.)

Nom. Vulg.--_AlG.o.don_, Sp.; _Bulak_, Tag.; _Cotton_, Eng.

Uses.--The root bark is antiasthmatic, emmenagogue, and according to Daruty [4] is a subst.i.tute for ergot in uterine hemorrhage. The leaves are used in bronchial troubles and the seeds are sudorific. The negroes in the United States use the root bark in large doses as an abortifacient; but a dose of 60 grams to 1,200 of water in decoction is proper and useful in treating dysmenorrhoea.

For a long time the seeds went to waste but industry has learned to obtain from them a brownish-red oil which is used as a subst.i.tute for olive oil, from which it is hard to distinguish it, if the latter is adulterated by mixing the two; for both have the same density and a very similar odor and taste. For this reason the production of cottonseed oil is very considerable nowadays. It is cheap and excellent for domestic, industrial and pharmaceutic use.

The seeds are used in North America in dysentery and as a galactagogue, and the juice of the leaves as an emollient in diarrhoea and mild dysentery. The pulp of the seeds, after the oil is extracted, yields a sweet material called _gossypose_, which is dextrogyrous and has the formula C_18_H_32_O_16_ + 5H_2_O.

The cotton itself, the part used in commerce as a textile, is also the portion of the plant most widely employed in therapeutics; not only the fiber from this species is used, but also that of others that grow in the Philippines, the _G. Barbadense_, L. (nom. vulg. _Pernambuko_, Tag.), and the _G. arboreum_, L. (_Bulak na bundok_, _Bulak na totoo_, Tag.).

Cotton is used extensively in bacteriological laboratories as a filter of liquids and gases. This property possessed by cotton, of retaining in its fibers the germs of the air was utilized by the famous French surgeon Guerin in the treatment that bears his name. The denuded surfaces exposed to infection by airborne bacteria are completely protected against them when, according to the Guerin treatment, they are enveloped in large ma.s.ses of fresh, raw cotton, presumably free from microorganisms. To avoid the possibility of infection by the cotton itself, it is now the practice to sterilize it either by means of chemicals such as carbolic acid, iodoform, etc., or by physical means such as high temperatures.

Raw cotton is used in compounding gun cotton or explosive cotton, also named _pyroxylin_, and this is used to make collodion, so extensively employed in medicine.

Pyroxylin is made by treating cotton with equal parts of nitric and sulphuric acids, then was.h.i.+ng with water till the latter ceases to give a precipitate with chloride of baryta; then dry in the air.

Collodion is made by dissolving 5 grams of pyroxylin in the following mixture:

Sulphuric ether, rectified 75 grams.

Alcohol at 95 20 grams.

Filter.

Elastic collodion:

Canada Balsam 1.50 grams.

Castor oil .50 grams.

Collodion 30.00 grams.

Mix.

Botanical Description.--A plant 2-3 high, of herbaceous stem, branches spa.r.s.ely covered with small, black points; leaves cleft at their base, with 5 lobules and a small gland on the midrib. Petiole long with 2 stipules at the base. Flowers axillary, solitary. Calyx double; the outer portion divided in 3 parts, heart-shaped, and each with 5-9 long, acute teeth. Corolla bell-shaped, of 5 petals, pale yellow or turning rose color, purple at the base. Stamens many, inserted on a column. Stigma in 4-5 parts. Ovary of 3-5 compartments. Seeds enveloped in the fiber.

Habitat.--Batangas, Ilocos.

_Bombax malabaric.u.m_, DC. (_B. Ceiba_, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Taglinaw_, _Bobuy gubat_, Tag.; _Talutu_, Vis.

Uses.--In India the roots are used to obtain an astringent and alterative effect and form part of a well-known aphrodisiac mixture called _Musla-Samul_. If the trunk is incised, an astringent gum exudes and this they use in diarrhoea, dysentery and menorrhagia. Dose of the gum 2 1/2-3 grams.

Botanical Description.--A large tree covered with sharp, conical and tough spines. Leaves alternate, compound, digitate, caducous; leaflets 5-7 with long common petiole. Flowers solitary or in axillary cymes, hermaphrodite, regular. Calyx gamosepalous, cup-shaped, with 5 acute lobules. Corolla violet, with 5 deep clefts; aestivation convolute. Stamens numerous, united at the base in 5 bundles, free above, bearing unilocular anthers. Ovary of 5 many-ovulate compartments, with a style ending in 5 short branches. Capsule woody, ovoid, loculicidal, with 5 valves. Seeds numerous, black, covered with cottony fibers.

Habitat.--Angat, Iloilo. Blooms in February.

_Eriodendron anfractuosum_, DC. (_Bombax pentandrum_, L.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Boboy_, Tag.; _Doldol_, Vis.; _Bulak kastila_, Pam.

Uses.--The princ.i.p.al use made of this plant in the Philippines is to stuff the pillows with the cotton that it yields. The leaves, pounded with a little water, yield a mucilaginous juice highly prized by the natives as a wash for the hair, mixing it with _gogo_. The root bark is emetic in dose of 1.25 grm. The cotton yielded by this tree should be used for the same therapeutic purposes as that of gossypium, and being of an exceedingly fine fiber it would give better results. The Filipinos use it to treat burns and sores. I have often used it, being careful always to impregnate it thoroughly with some antiseptic solution. In the treatment of burns it has been my custom to envelope the part in a thick layer of this cotton, after bathing it with a tepid 1-2,000 solution of corrosive sublimate and dusting with a very fine powder of boracic acid.

Botanical Description.--A tree 40-50 high. Trunk somewhat th.o.r.n.y, the branches horizontal, arranged in stars of 3-4. Leaves compound with 7 leaflets, lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers in umbels of 8 or more flowerets. No common peduncle, the individual ones long. Calyx, 5 obtuse sepals, slightly notched. Corolla, 5 fleshy petals, obtusely lanceolate and bent downwards. Stamens 5. Anthers of irregular shape, peltate, with the borders deeply undulate. Stigma in 5 parts. Pod 4-6'

long, spindle-shaped. Seeds enveloped in very fine cotton fiber.

Habitat.--Exceedingly common in all parts of the islands. Blooms in December.

STERCULIACEae.

Sterculia Family.