A las cuatro
is found throughout the Philippines in the settled areas in cultivation and also frequently spontaneous in the vicinity of towns. It was introduced from Mexico by the Spaniards at an early date, and is now pantropic in distribution. It is often cultivated in Manila and in large towns.
This is an erect, nearly or quite smooth, branched plant, growing to a height of 20 to 80 centimeters. The leaves are narrowly ovate, 4 to 10 centimeters long. The involucres are crowded, calyxlike, 1 centimeter long or less, and have one flower. The perianth is white, purple, or yellow, 3 to 4 centimeters long, with a cylindrical tube, which is slightly enlarged upward, and with a spreading limb. The fruit is narrowly ovoid, about 8 millimeters long, black, and finely ribbed.
According to Maurin the roots contain oxymethylanthraquinone, but their purgative action is not due to this constituent. Yoshimura and Trier isolated an alkaloid, trigonelline, from the plant. Chopra reports of the purgative action of trigonelline. Wehmer records that the plant yields galactose and arabinose.
Bruntz and Jaloux state that the roots are official in the Danish (2) Pharmacopoeia.
Burkill mentions that the pounded seeds are used in Malaya and elsewhere by Chinese and Japanese women for making a cosmetic powder. Burkill quotes Rumpf, who states that the powdered root was used with rice powder and sandalwood for the same purpose by the Spanish women in Ternate. In China the flowers are also used for cosmetic purposes.
Burkill says that the big tubers were formerly mistaken in Europe for the source of Jalap, and used as a purgative; but their action is very feeble. The roots have been reported as mildly purgative by Martinez, Sanyal and Ghose, Daruty, Chopra, Nadkarni, Debeaux, and Freise, and as emetic-cathartic in Mexico. Sanyal and Ghose and Nadkarni assert that the fresh juice of the leaves is very soothing and is applied to the body to allay the heat and itching in urticaria arising from dyspepsia. The bruised leaves are used in India and Java for poulticing boils and abscesses, and the juice is used for uterine discharges.
Gimlette and Burkill report that the juice of the leaves is prescribed internally in a mixture for gonorrhoea. Reutter states that its infusion is prescribed as a diuretic and for dropsy.
Abang-abang
is common in thickets and secondary forests at low and medium altitudes throughout the Philippines. It also occurs in Formosa, the Caroline Islands and Yap.
This is a smooth or nearly smooth shrub or small tree 3 to 6 meters in height. The leaves are three to four times pinnately compound and 50 to 80 centimeters long. The leaflets are elliptic-ovate to oblong-lanceolate, 6 to 15 centimeters long, toothed at the margins pointed at the tip and rounded or somewhat pointed at the base. The flowers are borne on large cymes, up to 50 centimeters in diameter, are five-parted and about 3 millimeters long; a few open at a time; the stalks and the calyx are red and the petals pale yellow. The fruit is dark red, depressed-globose, and about 8 millimeters in diameter.
According to Guerrero, the roots, branches, and leaves of this species used in decoction, are considered vulnerary.
Abaniko
is planted for ornamental purposes but is nowhere naturalized. It is a native of southeastern Asia, and is now cultivated in most warm countries.
The rootstock is creeping. The stem is erect, leafy, tufted, 0.5 to 1.5 meters high. The leaves are 2-ranked, strongly imbricated, crowded, sword-shaped, 40 to 60 centimeters long, 2.5 to 4 centimeters wide; those of the stem equitant. The inflorescence is dichotomously branched, terminal and erect. The spathes are ovate-lanceolate, and about 1 centimeter long. The flowers are pedicelled, opening 1 or 2 at a time, 4 to 6 centimeters across. The perianth-tube is very short, and the segments narrowly elliptic, spreading, yellowish outside, and inside reddish-yellow with reddish spots. The capsules are obovoid, membraneous, and loculicidal. The seeds are nearly spherical in shape, with lax and shining tests.
According to Hooper this is an important drug in China. The rhizome is sold in markets in hard, longitudinal slices, which are dark brown outside with transverse markings, and a few rootlets, and light yellowish-brown within. It is bitter and acrid. It is recommended as expectorant, deobstruant, and carminative. It is given in pulmonary and liver complaints and for purifying the blood. In Malaya it is a remedy for gonorrhoea. Hooper quotes Rheede, who says that it is an alexipharmic in Malabar. Kirtikar and Basu cite Loureiro, who states that the roots are used medicinally in Cochin China, and that they have aperient and resolvent properties
Abkel
is an endemic species, which commonly grows as an epiphyte or pseudoepiphyte on trees in mossy forests at an altitude of from 900 to 2,400 meters in Bontoc to Sorsogon Provinces in Luzon and in Mindoro and Catanduanes.
The leaves of Abkel are crowded towards the ends of the branchlets, leathery, smooth, oblanceolate, the average ones 15 centimeters long, and 4 centimeters wide, and pointed at both ends. The flowers are fragrant, short-pedicelled, and smooth, and are borne in clusters on the stem. The calyx is thin and cupular. The petals are oblong. The fruit is yellow, ellipsoid, 3 to 3.5 centimeters long, and dehiscent at the apex. The seeds are shining and black.
According to Bacon the fruit of Pittosporum resiniferum is known in the Philippines as petroleum nut, because even the green, fresh fruit will burn brilliantly when a match is applied to it. He says that the oil from the petroleum nut proved to very interesting as it contains considerable quantities of normal heptane, which has only once before been found in nature, occurring in the bigger pine of California, Pinus sabiniana Dougl., and also a dihydroterpene, C10H18. The oil has specific gravity, 0.883; N 30/D = 1.4577. It is quite sticky and in a thin layer rapidly becomes resinous. In an open dish it burns strongly with a sooty flame. It distills unchanged up to 165; then with decomposition it gives a resin oil. The oil distilling from 100 to 165 is colorless with an orange like odor; specific gravity, 30/4 = 0.7692; A 30/D = 37.0.
Fraction No. 1 had a pleasant odor recalling oranges, and the following properties: specific gravity, 25/4 = 0.6831; N 30/D = 1.3898; optical rotation = 0.
Fraction No.7 had a turpentinellike odor; specific gravity, 30/4 = 0.8263; N 30/D = 1.4630.
The properties of fraction No.1, leaves little doubt as to the identity of this compound with normal heptane.
The curanderos use the petroleum nut as a universal medicine. An infusion of the fruit is considered a remedy for intestinal and stomach pains. The oleoresin is used as a cure for leprosy and other skin diseases; and a means of relief in muscular pains.
Abuab
is found only in the Philippines in primary forests at low and medium altitudes in Rizal, Quezon, Laguna, and Camarines Provinces in Luzon; and in Mindoro, Masbate, Leyte, Mindanao and Sulu Archipelago.
This tree grows to height of 25 meters. The leaves are opposite or occasionally alternate, smooth, oblong, often 15 to 18 centimeters long but sometimes reaching a length of 25 centimeters, about 7 centimeters wide, and usually pointed at both ends. The flowers are greenish white are about 1 centimeter in diameter, and have 5 petals. These are borne in terminal and axillary panicles. The fruit is leathery and smooth reaching a length of 12 centimeters and a width of 2.5 centimeters, with three, broad, longitudinal wings.
Brill and Wells report that the plant contains a physiologically active substance, a saponin which is poisonous in small quantities. Boorsma isolated a glucoside and named it lophopetalin. Valenzuela, Concha and Santos record the presence of lophopetalin 0.2 per cent; saponin, phytosterine, 5 per cent; luperol; betulin and a new stearin (C29H48O3).
In the Philippines, according to Guerrero the thickened sap of the bark is used by the Negritos and other hillmen to poison the tips of their arrows. Sulit and Brill and Wells describe the preparation of the arrow poison
Acacia concinna
is found in La Union, Benguet, and Ilocos Sur Provinces in Luzon, in thickets at low and medium altitudes. It also occurs in India to southern China and Malaya.
This is a scandent prickly shrub reaching a height of 4 to 5 meters. The branches are gray and armed with short, sharp prickles. The leaves are pinnately compound, 15 to 15 centimeters long, and with 8 to 10 pairs of pinnae. The rachis has one gland near the base, and one or two near the apex. The leaflets number 20 to 32 pairs on each pinnae, are linear-oblong, being 8 to 10 millimeters in length, and have a pointed tip and subtruncate base. The midrib is oblique. The panicles are terminal, in the upper axils, and ample. The heads are yellow about 1 centimeter in diameter. The pods are straight, somewhat fleshy, flat, 7 to 10 centimeters long, and about 2 centimeters wide.
According to Kirtikar and Basu the soft parts of the dried berries contain 5 percent of saponin. They state that the pod is acid, bitter, and singularly pungent; and that medicinally, it is deobstruent in cases of jaundice and other biliary derangements and is besides, used by the Indians for washing the head.
Achuete
is usually planted in and about towns throughout the Philippines. It is a native of tropical America, and is now pantropic in cultivation.
This tree grows from 4 to 6 meters in height. The leaves are entire, ovate, 8 to 20 centimeters long, and 5 to 12 centimeters wide, with broad, more or less heart-shaped base, and pointed wide, with board, m, and pointed tip. The flowers are white or pinkish, 4 to 6 centimeters in diameter, and borne on terminal panicles. The capsules are ovoid or somewhat rounded, reddish brown, about 4 centimeters long, and covered with long, slender, rather soft spines; and contain many small seeds, which are covered with a red pulp, which yields a well-known dye.
The seeds are used locally for coloring food. The coloring matter of the fruit, annatto, is employed commercially for coloring butter and in the preparation of various polishes for russet lather. According to Burkill, the roots impart to meat the taste and color of saffron. A fairy good fiber may be obtained from the bark.
Etti reports that the coloring matter in the seeds is bixin. Wehmer records that the seeds contain a fatty oil with palmitin, a little stearin, and phytosterol.
The leaves and dye are official in the Dutch and Mexican Pharmacopoeias.
In the Philippines, the achuete dye is much used with lime as an external application in erysipelas. Father de Sta. Maria reports that achuete is effective for burns, and mixed with coconut, is applied to the throat. According to Guerrero, a decoction of the bark is employed in febrile catarrhs. The red, resinous substance of the seeds is considered an efficient remedy for certain skin diseases. Tavera says that the fine powder, which covers the seeds, is used as haemostatic, and internally as a stomachic.
The root-bark is antiperiodic and antipyretic. In French Guiana an infusion is prescribed as a purgative in dysentery. The leaves are used snakebite. They are applied as poultices as topicals to relive headache. A decoction of them is employed as a gargle for sore throat. The leaves, pounded and macerated in water, are diuretic and a remedy for gonorrhea. The fresh branches in infusion produces a kind of gum or mucilage like gum Arabic and is considered in the Antilles as a good emollient.
The seeds are slightly astringent and in decoction are very good remedy for gonorrhea. The seeds also posses antiperiodic and antipyretic properties, but to a lesser extent. The pulp (annatto) surrounding the seeds is astringent and slightly purgative and is given in dysentery and diseases of the kidneys. The pulp of the seeds, if applied immediately to burns, is said to prevent the formulation of blisters or scars. In Uruguay, the seeds ground and boiled in re employed in burns. The pulp is also prescribed for stomachache. The seeds are said to be an antidote to cassava and Jatropha curcas poisoning. The oil of the seeds is effective in leprosy.
Alugbati
is found in settled areas, in hedges, old cultivated areas, etc., throughout the Philippines. It is certainly not a native of the Archipelago but is of prehistoric introduction. It occurs also in tropical Asia, Africa and Malaya, often cultivated.
This is a succulent, branched, smooth, twining, herbaceous vine, reaching a length of several meters. The stems are green or purplish. The leaves are somewhat fleshy, ovate or heart-shaped, 5 to 12 centimeters in length, stalked, tapering to a pointed tip, and cordate at the base. The spikes are axillary, solitary, and 5 to 29 centimeters in length. The flowers are pink, and about 4 millimeters long. The fruit is fleshy, stalkless, ovoid or nearly spherical, 5 to 6 millimeters in length, and purple when mature.
Alugbati is a very common and popular leafy vegetable, which is much used in stews and, which makes good substitute for spinach. The cultivated varieties, both the green and the purple, are superior to the wild ones. It is cultivated extensively by Chinese gardeners and is on sale in Manila markets throughout the year. The young shoots, including both the leaves and the stems are eaten.
The plant is mucilaginous when cooked. Mara on reports that it is an excellent source of calcium and iron and that it has the high roughage value characteristic of leafy vegetables. According to Hermano and Hermano and Sepulveda, it is a good source of vitamin A and an excellent one of vitamins B and C.
Read reports that the leaves contain saponin, vitamins A3 and B3; and the fruit, mucilage and iron.
According to Guerrero the roots are employed as a rubefacient, and as a poultice to reduce local swellings; the sap is used to anoint any part of the body affected by acne in order to diminish the irritation. According to Nadkarni, and Kirtikar and Basu, its action is demulcent and diuretic. Stuart adds that it is emollient.
In India Nadkarni reports that it makes a wholesome and a most easily digested spinach and acts as a mild laxative. The leaves are reduced to a pulp and applied to boils, ulcers and abscesses to hasten suppuration. The juice of the leaves, together with sugar candy, is useful in catarrhal affections of children. It is administered with much benefit in gonorrhea and balanitis. The leaf-juice, thoroughly rubbed and mixed with butter, is a soothing and cooling application for burns and scalds. The mucilaginous liquid obtained from the leaves and tender stalks of this plant is a popular remedy for habitual headaches. Stuart states that the fruit is used as rouge for the cheeks and lips of ladies, and also as a dye. De Grosourdy says that in the Antilles the leaves are considered good maturatives as cataplasm. A decoction of the leaves is a good laxative for pregnant women and children.
AVOCADO
Local names: Abukado (Tag.); alligator pear (Engl.).
Avocado is an introduced species, which is now extensively cultivated in the Philippines for its edible fruit. It was introduced from tropical America before the end of the sixteenth century.
Avocado is a medium sized tree reaching a height of 10 meters. The leaves are alternate, oblong to oval or obovate, and about 20 centimeters long. The flowers are small and borne in naked, panicled, hairy cymes. The perianth-segments are 4 to 5 millimeters long. The fruit is large, fleshy, elongated, of various shapes but often somewhat resembling a pear, 8 to 18 centimeters long, soft, and edible.
The fruit varies greatly in size and shape; some avocados may weigh up to two kilos. It contains a single, large, pear-shaped seed surrounded by abundant, soft, yellowish or yellowish-green flesh, which is highly prized. The leaves are used as a substitute for tea.
The fruit is eaten with dressing as a salad. It makes an excellent ice-cream and dessert. It is added to soup also at the time of serving. According to Marañon it has a high fat content (8.13 per cent); but is deficient in calcium and only fair in iron. Hermano says that it is good source of vitamins A and B.
Wehmer records that the leaves contain volatile oil, 0.5 per cent, with methyl-chavicol, d-d-pinene and paraffin.
Stoneback and Calvert state that the fat content increases with the maturity of the fruit. The total dry matter in the edible portion of the avocado is greater than that in any other fresh fruit, the one nearest approaching it being the banana, which contains about 25 per cent of dry matter. The avocado contains an average of 30 per cent. The protein content, which averages 2 per cent, is higher than that in any other fresh fruit. The percentage of carbohydrates is not high compared with many fruits, because the avocado contains almost no sugar. These two authorities quotes LaForge, who has found a new sugar in the avocado, called d-Mannoketoheptose, believed to be present in varying amounts from 0.5 to 1 per cent. They continue by affirming that the amount of mineral matter present is much greater than that in other fresh fruits. Salts of sodium, potassium, magnesium and calcium compose more than one-half of the ash. This fact places the avocado among the foods, which yield an excess of the base-forming elements, as opposed to nuts, which furnish an excess of acid-forming elements. The chief value of the avocado as a food is due to its high
percentage of fat, averaging 20 per cent. Experiments carried on the University of California show that the digestibility of fat from the avocado is equal to that of butter fat, and not below that of beef fat. The caloric or energy-producing value of the avocado is very high. One pound of the edible portion represents an average of 1,000 calories. The maximum yield is nearly twice that of average lean meat.
According to Bruntz and Jaloux the leaves are official in the Mexican (1-4) Pharmacopoeias; the fruit in the Mexican (1-4) and Venezuelan (1,2) Pharmacopoeias; and the seeds in the Venezuelan (1,2) Pharmacopoeias.
Standley declares that a large number of therapeutic uses are reported for the plant. The pulp is credited with hastening the suppuration of wounds and is reputed to have aphrodisticiac and emmenagogue properties. The seeds contain a milky juice, which turns red on exposure and which produces an indelible stain on linen. An ointment of the pulverized seeds is sometimes employed as a rubefacient, and a decoction of them, or a piece of a seed placed in the cavity of a tooth, is believed to cure toothache. Martinez and Stanley state that the leaves and bark are employed in domestic medicines because of the pectoral, stomachic, emmenagogue, resolutive, and anti-periodic properties ascribed to them. Martinez, Sayre, and Stanley report that the Mexicans use the rind as an anthelmintic. Sayre adds that in the form of a liniment it is used in intercostal neuralgia.
AZUCENA
Local names: Azucena (Sp., Tag.); baston de San Jose (Sp., Tag.); nardo (C. Bis.); tuberose (Engl.).
The Azucena is mostly cultivated for its fragrant flowers but is nowhere naturalized. It is a native of tropical America.
The rootstock is stout, and tuberous. The basal leaves are linear, 40 to 60 centimeters long, and less than 1 centimeter wide, those on the stem being much shorter. The inflorescence is erect, 0.5 to 1 meter high. The flowers are fragrant, waxy-white, in pairs, 5 to 6 centimeters long, and the segments, oblong-lanceolate, 1 to 1.5 centimeters long.
The fragrant flowers of Azucena are much in demand by florists. The volatile oil obtained from the flowers is used in perfumery.
Verley isolated from the oil a substance, which he designated as tuberone. Hesse demonstrated the presence of methyl anthranilate in tuberose oil. Wehmer records the presence of inulin in the bulbs.
Medicinally the azucena has little use. According to Guerrero the bulbs are used in a decoction to cure gonorrhoea, and in the form of a poultice are employed as a maturative. Chopra states that in India the flowers are used as a diuretic and emetic. Murray says that in Sind the bulbs are said to be dried, powdered and administered in gonorrhoea.
ASPARAGUS FERN.
Common names: Esparrago plumosa (Sp.); asparagus fern (Engl.).
Asparagus fern is cultivated for ornamental purposes in the Philippines. It is a native of Africa and has been recently introduced here; now being cultivated in most warm countries.
Asparagus fern is a slender, climbing, or ascending, branched perennial, with round, green stem, the branches and branchlets very numerous, slender, spreading horizontally, forming fernlike sprays, with the upper internodes 1 to 2 millimeters long. The leaves (cladodes) are setaceous, very slender, 3 to 5 millimeters long, ascending or spreading, 6 to 12 in a fascicle. The flowers are small, perfect, solitary at the ends of the branches, with the pedicels very short and about 1-millimeter long. The perianth segments are about 2 millimeters long and are spreading.
The cut sprays of asparagus fern are used in large quantities by florists on account of their beauty and their keeping qualities.
It is not known in the Philippines as a medicinal plant. However, in Mexico Martinez reports that a decoction of the branches is used in pulmonary affections and that a decoction of the roots is used as a diuretic.
ATIS
Local names: Ates (Tag.); atis (Tag.); yates (Tag.); sugar apple, sweetsop (Eng.).
Atis is cultivated, throughout the Philippines and is occasionally spontaneous. It was introduced from tropical America by the Spaniards at an early date and is now pantropic in cultivation.
The plant is a small tree 3 to 5 meters in height. The leaves are somewhat hairy when young, oblong, and 8 to 15 centimeters in length with petiole 1 to 1.5 centimeters long. The flowers occur singly in the axils of the leaves and are about 2.5 centimeters long. They are pendulous, hairy, three-angled, and greenish-white or yellowish. The fruit is large, somewhat heart-shaped, and 6 to 9 centimeters in length. The outside of the fruit is marked by polygonal tubercles. When the fruit is ripe it is a light yellowish green. The flesh is white, sweet, soft and juicy, and has a mild very agreeable flavor.
Atis is a favorite fruit of the Filipinos. It is very refreshing and may be eaten raw or made into an excellent ice cream. According to Burkill the fermented fruit seems to be used in the West Indies to make a kind of cider.
From the leaves Trimurti obtained an alkaloid – a white, powdery base in the amount of 0.4 percent calculated as chloroplatinate. He adds that the seeds contain an alkaloid; neutral resin 0.56 percent; fixed oil 14 percent (with glycerides of linolic, oleic, palmitic, stearic and cerotic acids). Reyes and Santos isolated from the bark an alkaloid, anonaine, melting at 122° - 123° C., similar to the alkaloid isolated by Santos in Anona reticulata. Santos in his re-study of the alkaloid, changed the formula C17H16NO3, which he had assigned to anonaine, to C17H17NO3. Burkill reports that the seeds contain 45 percent of a yellow, nondrying oil and an irritant poison, which kills lice. Bernagau states that the flesh of the fruit contains upwards of 10 percent of sugars, mostly glucose (5.40 percent) and some fructose (3.60 percent).
In the Philippines the leaves are applied as a poultice to children with dyspepsia. Crushed seeds with coconut oil are applied on the scalp to rid it of lice. A decoction of the seeds is used as an enema for the children with dyspepsia.
According to Sanyal and Ghose, externally the leaves, the unripe fruit, and the seeds (which contain acrid principle) possess vermicidal and insecticidal properties. The crushed seeds, in a paste with water, are applied to the scalp to destroy lice. The same is used as an abortifacient if applied to the uteri in pregnant women. The bruised leaves, with salt, make a good cataplasm to induce suppuration. The fresh leaves crushed between the fingers and applied to the nostrils cut shorts fits and fainting. The ripe fruit, bruised and mixed with salt,
is applied as a maturant to malignant tumors to hasten suppuration. The unripe fruit is astringent, and is given in diarrhea, dysentery and atonic dyspepsia.
The bark, according to Nadkarni, is considered a powerful astringent and tonic. The leaves are used as an anthelmintic.
The seeds are considered a powerful irritant to the conjunctiva.
The roots are considered a drastic purgative.
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