The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines Part 11

_Feronia elephantum_, Correa. (_Murraya adorata_, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Panoan_, _Pamunoan_, Vis.; _Wood-apple_, Eng.

Uses.--The pulp of the ripe fruit has an agreeable odor and is edible. In India the green fruit is used as an astringent in diarrhoea and dysentery; the ripe fruit is given in diseases of the gums and as a gargle. Mir Muhammad Husain states that the ripe fruit is a refrigerant, astringent, cardiac and general tonic, and is very efficacious in the treatment of salivation and ulcers of the throat, strengthening the gums and operating as an astringent. A sorbet made of the ripe fruit whets the appet.i.te and the pulp is used locally for bites of venomous animals. In the latter case the pulverized bark may be used if the fruit cannot be obtained.

The fruit of Ferona is a subst.i.tute for Bael (_aegle Marmelos_), and is used as such by the English physicians in the hospitals of India. The tender leaves have an agreeable aroma similar to that of anise and are used internally in decoction as a stomachic and carminative.

The incised trunk exudes a gum which is used in India as a subst.i.tute for gum arabic and there is an active trade in this gum in the bazars of Bombay and Calcutta. According to Pereira, it was at one time imported into England from the east of India under the name of gum arabic. It exists in the form of irregular, semitransparent pieces, of a brownish-red color. With water it forms a mucilage as adhesive as gum arabic, and this solution reddens litmus paper. It is dextrogyrous and is precipitated by the neutral acetate of lead and by caustic baryta.

Botanical Description.--Tree 3-4 meters high. Leaves fragrant, opposite, odd-pinnate. Leaflets, 2 pairs, lanceolate, entire, and glabrous. Common petiole flattened above. Flowers terminal, white, racemose, with 2 flattened peduncles. Calyx inferior, with 5-6 divisions. Corolla, 5-6 petals. Anthers oval. Ovary oblong, 5-lobuled. Style short, caducous. Stigma spindle-shaped. Ovules numerous, compressed, in several series. Fruit pulpy, globose, with woody rind, one compartment and many compressed, oblong seeds.

Habitat.--Mountains of Angat. Woods of Catugan (Iloilo).

SIMARUBACEae.

Qua.s.sia Family.

_Samadera Indica_, Gaertn. (_Niota tetrapela_, DC. & Blanco; _Manungala pendula_, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Manungal_, Tag., Pam., Bicol.; _Manunagl_, _Linatoganak_, _Palagarium_, _Daraput_, Vis.

Uses.--The wood and seeds contain an intensely bitter principle. The Filipinos make cups and vases of the wood and allow water to stand in them 6-12 hours, thus preparing a solution of the bitter principle of the plant which they use in various stomach disorders.

Vrij has extracted from the seeds a 33% oil of a bright yellow color, composed, according to Oudermans, of 84 parts olein to 16 of palmitin and stearin.

The bitter principle contained in the root, wood and bark was discovered by Blunse who named it _samaderin_; it is a white, crystalline, foliaceous substance, more soluble in water than in alcohol, fusible. Nitric and hydrochloric acids color it yellow. Sulphuric acid immediately forms a violet red color which disappears as iridescent, feathery crystals are precipitated. (D. Beaumentz et Ega.s.se.)

The Filipino "herb-doctors" concoct an oil of manungal that in reality contains none of the ingredients of the seeds; it is simply cocoanut oil in which chips of the wood have been soaked. They use it in doses of 30-60 grams as a purgative, externally as an application to the abdomen in colic or indigestion and with friction in rheumatism or contusions. In India the oil extracted from the seeds is used locally with friction in rheumatism.

The decoction of the wood and the powdered wood are given in fevers, in dyspepsia and as a general tonic.

Infusion.--Chips of the wood 20 grams.

Water 500 grams.

A winegla.s.sful several times a day in cholera, fevers, diarrhoea, etc.

Botanical Description.--A small tree, trunk straight, the wood white and very light in weight. Leaves 4-5' long, alternate, acute, oval, entire, glabrous, coriaceous, veined. Petioles very short, no stipules. Flowers in terminal umbels, each composed of 4-6 flowerets with moderately long pedicels. Common peduncle, very slender, very long, drooping. Calyx of same color as corolla, inferior, very small, 4-lobuled. Corolla purplish, very long, 4 straight, linear petals. Stamens 8, inserted on the receptacle. Filaments of equal length with the petals, with 1-2 appendices at the base. Anthers spiral. Ovary 5-lobuled, borne on small stalk. One style of equal length with the stamens, situated above the center of the 5 lobules of the ovary which develop into 5 future pods. Stigma simple. Fruit 5 woody pods, short, united centrally above a small base, semi-lunar in form, medianly expanded, venate, containing a small wrinkled, kidney-shaped seed attached by a seed-stalk to the superior suture.

Habitat.--Very common and well known everywhere in the Philippines. Blooms in February.

BURSERACEae.

Myrrh Family.

_Garuga pinnata_, Roxb. (_G. Madagascarensis_, DC.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Bugo_, Tag.

Uses.--The fruit is slightly acid and edible. The trunk exudes an abundant gum, of the odor of turpentine, translucent, greenish-yellow, forming small ma.s.ses slightly soluble in alcohol, soluble in water, with which a mucilage is formed. The juice of the leaves is used for asthma. The sap is used in Bombay to remove opacities of the cornea. There is another species in the Philippines, _G. floribunda_, Decsne (_Icica Abilo_, Blanco), _abilo_, Tag., the root of which furnishes a decoction used for phthisis. This species also produces a gum-resin similar to that of the _bugo_.

Botanical Description.--A tree, with leaves alternate, odd-pinnate, without stipules, bunched on the ends of the branches, with opposite, serrate leaflets. Flowers yellowish-white in panicles, compound, polygamous. Calyx bell-shaped, 5-toothed. Corolla, 5 petals. Stamens 10, free, in 2 series. Ovary inferior, 5-lobuled. Fruit, a globose, greenish-yellow drupe with numerous bony seeds.

Habitat.--Everywhere in Luzon, Panay and Balabac.

_Canarium commune_, L. (_C. alb.u.m_ and _C. Luzonic.u.m_, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--_Pili_, Tag.; _Java Almond Tree_, _East Indian Elemi_, Eng.

Uses.--The ripe pili nut is edible and sold in confectioneries. It yields a fixed oil, an excellent sample of which was sent by the Manila pharmacist D. A. del Rosario to the Paris Exposition of 1889. "It is an oil very similar to oil of almond and owing to its physical properties may be used as a subst.i.tute for the latter for all the requirements of pharmacy. The only inconvenience connected with its use is the slight one that it solidifies at 3 C. It could furthermore be very advantageously used in the manufacture of fine grades of soap." (D. A. del Rosario.)

The incised trunk exudes a gum-resin called _brea blanca_ (white pitch) in the Philippines and _elemi_ in Europe. Until recently it was not known in Europe what tree yielded the gum elemi, some authors stating that according to Blanco it was the resin of the _Icica abilo_, Blanco (_Garuga floribunda_, Decsne); it is not true, however, that Padre Blanco ever attributed such origin to that product or named his Icica the "pitch-tree." On the contrary in speaking of the Canarium, Blanco states that it yields a resin called "pili-pitch." I do not know the reason for this confusion of terms, but presume it to be due to imperfect knowledge of Spanish on the part of those who thus quote Blanco.

Pili-pitch, or elemi, as they call it in Manila, is a substance existing in soft ma.s.ses, slightly yellowish or gray, resembling old honey in appearance. Its odor is strong and agreeable, somewhat like that of lemon and turpentine. Its taste is acrid and bitter.

The French pharmacist Meaujean demonstrated in 1820 that elemi contains two resins, one soluble in the cold, and the other in hot spirits of wine. Other chemists, among them Baup, Fluckiger and Hanbury, have found elemi to be composed of a resinous substance and a colorless essential oil; the proportion of the latter Fluckiger gives as 10% and further states that it is dextrogyrous. Sainte-Claire Deville found the essential oil levogyrous, a fact that emphasizes the probability of there being different products in the market bearing the name of elemi.

Baup obtained several principles from it: (1) A resin, _brein_, fusible at 187, soluble in cold alcohol, crystallizable in oblique rhombic prisms; (2) another crystalline substance, _bryoidin_, soluble in 360 parts water at 10, and melting at 13; (3) a small amount of _breidin_, a body soluble in 260 parts water and melting at 100+; (4) another resin soluble in boiling alcohol, called _amyrin_.

White pitch is used in the Philippines to make plasters which they apply to the back and breast of patients suffering from bronchial or pulmonary complaints; it is also applied to indolent ulcers. We believe that elemi possesses the same properties as copaiba, and that its indications for internal use are the same.

Botanical Description.--A tree 30-40 meters high, with leaves alternate, odd-pinnate; leaflets opposite, coriaceous. Flowers yellowish-white in axillary, compound panicles, hermaphrodite. Calyx 3-toothed. Corolla, 3 oblong, concave petals. Stamens 6, inserted on the base of the disc. Ovary free, of 3 lobules each containing 2 ovules. Style simple. Stigma, 3 lobules. Drupe oblong, size of large prune, fleshy, containing a hard, 3-sided pit.

Habitat.--Very common in all Philippine woods especially in Camarines.

MELIACEae.

Melia Family.