BALIMBING
Local names: Balimbing (Sul.); balimbing (Tag., Bik.); balingbing (Bik., C. Bis.); balimbin (Tag.); daligan (Ilk.); dalihan (Ibn.); galangan (P. Bis.); galuran (Ibn.); garahan (Bis.); garulan (Ibn.); malimbin (S. L. Bis.); sirinate (Ting.).
Balimbing occurs in a cultivated or semicultivated state throughout the Philippines. It was introduced from tropical America and is now pantropic in cultivation.
This plant is a small tree growing to a height of 6 meters or less. The leaves are pinnate, about 15 centimeters long. The leaflets are quite smooth. There are usually about 5 pairs of leaflets which are ovate to ovate-lanceolate, the upper ones about 5 centimeters long and the lower ones smaller. The panicles are small, axillary and somewhat bell-shaped 5 to 6 millimeters long. The calyx is reddish purple. The petals are purple to rather bright purple, often margined with white. The fruit is fleshy green or greenish yellow, and usually about 6 centimeters long, with 5 longitudinal, sharp, angular lobes. The seeds are arillate.
The fruit is fleshy, acid, green or greenish-yellow, and edible. It is eaten with or without salt rather extensively by Filipinos and the juice is often used for seasoning. As in kamias the juice is used in washing clothes and removes spot or stains. The fruit is made also into pickles and sweets. Burkill says that the flowers are used in salads in Java.
Analyses of the fruit show it to be a fairly good source of iron but deficient in calcium. Hermano and Sepulveda report that it is a fair source of vitamin B. Read adds the fruit also contains vitamin C. According to Correa, the fruit contains oxalic acid, and potassium oxalate. Sanyal and Ghose say that the seeds contain an alkaloid, harmaline (C13H14N2O).
According to Kamel, a decoction of the leaves is good for aphtha and angina. Crevost and Petelot say that in Tonkin the flowers are considered to have a vermifuge action. Burkill and Haniff record the crushed leaves or shoots are used by the Malays as an application for chicken-pox, ringworm, and headache. A decoction of the leaves and fruit is given to arrest vomiting. Menaut states that the leaves are applied in fevers.
Regnault reports that the Chinese and Annamites use the flowers against cutaneous affections.
The fruit is laxative, a refrigerant, and an antiscorbutic excites appetite, is a febrifuge and antidysenteric, and is a sialogogue and antiphlogistic. It is good
remedy for bleeding piles, particularly internal piles. The fruit is also given in fevers. The fruit will also benefit haematemesis, melaema, and some other forms of haemorrhage. It is given, in syrup, as a cooling drink in fevers in the Philippines. Safford states that eating the uncooked fruit causes hiccoughs. Regnault states that the Chinese and Annamites employ the fruit in the form of eye-salve against affections of the eyes.
Sanyal and Ghose report that the drug acts an as a stimulant to the reproductive organs in both male and the female. In the female it also increases the fluid of milk and the menstrual fluid. In large doses, it acts as an emmenagogue like ergot, and produces abortion. It is generally administered in the form of an infusion or decoction of the crushed seeds through it may also be given in the form of a tincture. Like Cannabis indica, it has slight intoxicating properties.
According to Dey, the seeds may be regarded as a narcotic, anodyne, emetic, and emmenagogue. The powder, in doses of ½ to 3 drams, is a good anodyne in asthma, colic, and jaundice, and the watery infusion id similarly useful.
BALABAT
Local names: Balabát (P. Bis.); ugsáng (Sul.)
Balabát is found near the sea, in thickets at low altitudes in Culion, in Balabac, and in the Calamianes Islands. It sometimes occurs also immediately back of the mangrove in brackish mud. It is now cultivated in Manila for ornamental purposes. It also occurs in the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago to the Mollucas.
The stems are stout, roughened with fallen leaf scars, clustered, 2 to 3 maters high, 5 to 10 centimeters in diameter. The leaves are about 1 meter across, deeply divided, 9- to 13-partite, and horizontally spreading fan shaped. The spadix is a axially, elongated, with the branches adnate to the orifice of the spathes, ultimately with many finely pubescent, densely flowered spikes. The flowers are sessile, placed in two rows or three, small and nearly oval shape. The calyx is suboval, divided at the middle into three rounded teeth. The corolla is a little longer than the calyx and is divided below the middle into three broad, lanceolate segments. The fruit is obovoid, and 5 to 8 millimeters long, pedicelled by the calyx tube; red when mature, and one-seeded. The seed is ovoid, with horny albumen on a transverse section, horseshoe-shaped.
According to Caius in Cambodia the bark is used in combination with other drugs for the treatment of tuberculosis with spitting of blood.
BANABA
Local names: Agaro (Sbl.); bugarom (S.L. Bis.); banaba (Tag., and many other dialects); duguam (S.L. Bis.); kauilan (P. Bis.); makablos (Pang.); mitla (Pamp.); nabulong (Neg.); pmalauagon (S.L. Bis.); pamarauagon (S.L. Bis.); parasabukung (sub.); tabañgau (Ibn., Neg.); tauagnau (Ibn.).
Banaba is found n the Batan Islands and northern Luzon to Palawan, Mindanao, and the Sulu Archipelago, in most or all island and provinces, chiefly in secondary forest at low and medium altitudes. It is also reported to occur in India to southern China and southward through Malaya to tropical Australia.
This is a dangerous tree growing from 5 to 20 meters n height. The bark is smooth, grey to cream-colored, and peel off in irregular flakes. The leaves are smooth, oblong to elliptic-ovate, and 12 to 25 centimeters long. The flowers are 6-parted, purplish lilac or mauve-pink, rarely pink 5 to 7.5 centimeters across, and borne in large, terminal panicles up to 40 centimeters in length. The petals are oblong-obovate or obovate, shortly clawed, and 3 to 3.5 centimeters long; the margins are shortly clawed, and 3 to 3.5 centimeters long; the margins are undulate and hardly fimbriate. The fruit is large capsule, obovoid or ellipsoid, and 2 to 3.5 centimeters long. The seed is pale brown, with a wing 12 to 18 millimeters long.
Banaba is cultivated in Manila for its beautiful flowers. It makes an excellent avenue tree and very effective when massed in parks. Banaba is also useful as a timber tree.
Burkill and Haniff report that the bark contains much tannin. Pasupati reports that the fruit (Burmese) contains 14.26 to 17.28 per cent of tannin; the leaves, 12.83 to 13.3 per cent; and the bark 10 per cent. In the Philippines, Garcia carried out chemical and pharmacological studies of the leaves and reports that the principle constituents consist of a large amount of tannin, a moderate amount of glucose, and a small amount, if any, of glucoside. He summarizes his result as follows:
Oral administration of the deduction of banaba with doses equivalent to 1 or 2 gm. of dried leaves per kg. Body weight reduces blood sugar from 16 to 49 mg. Of glucose per 100 cc. of blood in normal rabbits.
The blood sugar reduction caused by the decoction of banaba was relatively greater when the initial blood sugar was high than when the initial amount was low.
The absence of important plant constituents suggest that the hypoglycemic principle is probably a hormone occurring in plants similar to insulin occurring in animals. This hypoallergenic principle, however, is not glucokinin, for the plant extracts prepared by Collip, which he considered to contain glucokinin, produces a delayed hypoglycemic effect twenty-one hours or more after administration of the extract. In case of the decoction of banaba, the hypoglycemic effect was immediate, similar to that produced by subcutaneous injection of insulin.
In Dr. Garcia’s subsequent paper, he calls the hypoglycemic principle an “insulin-like principle.” He summarizes his result as follows:
The old leaves and ripe fruits are the parts of banaba that contain the greatest amount of an insulin-like principle. Twenty grams of old leaves or fruit, dried from one to two weeks, in the from of 100 cc. of 20 per cent decoction were found to have the activity equivalent to form 6 to 7.7 units of insulin in lowering blood sugar.
The mature leaves, young leaves, and flowers have an activity that range from 4.4 to 5.4 units of insulin per 100 cc. of 20 per cent decoction, or equivalent to around 70 per cent of the activity of the leaves or fruit.
The wood does not contain the insulin-like principle while the bark and roots contain a very small amount.
The insulin-like principle deteriorates or disappears in the different parts of banaba kept in the laboratory under ordinary conditions. The rate of deterioration for every 20 gms. of the dried parts of banaba per week is approximately 0.15 unit for fruit; 0/3 unit for old leaves; 0.58 unit for flowers; 0.6 unit for young leaves, and 0.9 unit for mature leaves.
In the Philippines, banaba is popular medicinal plant. A decoction of the leaves of all ages is used for diabetes mellitus. It is prepared and taken like tea. Some Filipino physicians believe that a decoction of the dried fruit is even better.
Kirtikar and Basu quote Dr. Stewart, who considers the bark stimulant and febrifuge. Burkill and Haniff state that a decoction of it is used in Pahang for abdominal pains. Heyne says that an infusion is taken to stop diarrhea. According to Duchesne a decoction of the roots is used against small ulcers of the mouth. He also considers a decoction of the leaves a deobstruent and diuretic. Grin writes that the bark, leaves, and flowers are given as a purgative. The seeds possess narcotic properties and are employed against aphthae.
BAYABAS
Local names: Bagabas (Ig.); bayabas (Ibn., Ilk., Tag., C. Bis.); bayauas (Bik.); bayabo (Ibn.); biabas (Sul.); gaiyabat (If.); gaiyabit (If.); geyabas (Bon.); guayabas (Tag.); gaiyabat (Ilk.); kalimbahin (Tag.); tayabas (Tag.); guava (Engl.).
Bayabas is found throughout the Philippines in all islands and provinces and is usually very common in thickets and secondary forest at low altitudes, ascending to at least 1, 500 meters. It was introduced from tropical America, and become thoroughly naturalized. It is pantropic in distribution.
This plant, which is somewhat hairy reaches a height of 8 meters. The young branches are 4-angled. The leaves are opposite, oblong to elliptic, and 5 to 12 centimeters long, the apex, being pointed and the base usually rounded. The peduncles are 1- to 3-flowered. The flowers are white, 3 to 3.5 centimeters across, solitary or two to three together. The fruit is rounded, ovoid or obovoid, 4 to 9 centimeters long, and green, but yellowish when ripe, and contains many seeds embedded in aromatic, pink, edible pulp.
Bayabas is one of the commonest and the best known fruits in the Philippines. A wild tree, it grows abundantly in settled areas. The fruit is a favorite with the Filipinos and is extensively used in the manufacture of jellies owing to the presence of a considerable amount of pectin. The ripe fruit is eaten as a vegetable and used as seasoning for “singigang”, etc.
Wehmer records that the leaves contain fixed oil 6 per cent, and volatile oil 0.365 per cent. The essential oil contains eugenol, mallic acid, and tannin 8 to 15 per cent. The fruit contains “glykosen” 4.14 to 4.3 per cent, saccharose 1.62 to 3.4 per cent, protein 0.3 per cent, etc.; and the ash yields 75 per cent of CaCO3. The bark contains 12 to 30 per cent of tannin. The roots are also rich in tannin.
The roots are official in the Mexican (1-4) pharmacopoeia; and the leaves in the Dutch (4) and Mexican (1-4) Pharmacopoeias.
In the Philippines the astringent, unripe fruit, the leaves, the cortex of the bark and roots – through more often the leaves only – in the form of a decoction, are used for washing ulcers and wounds. Guerrero states that the bark and leaves are astringent, vulnerary, and when decocted, antidiarhetic.
Sanyal and Ghose states that the bark is used in the chronic diarrhea of children and sometimes adults; half an ounce of the bark is boiled down with six
ounces of water to 3 ounces; the dose (for children) is one teaspoonful 3 to 4 times a day. Dey says that the root-bark has been recommended for chronic diarrhea. In a decoction of ½ oz. in 6 oz. of water, boiled down to 3 oz. and given in teaspoonful doses; and also recommended as a local application in prolapsus and of children. Nadkarni states that a decoction of the root-bark is recommended as a mouthwash for swollen gums.
Kirtikar and Basu say that the leaves, when chewed, are said to be remedy for toothache. Martinez states that the decocted leaves are used in Mexico for cleansing ulcers. Nadkarni reports that the ground leaves make an excellent poultice. Dymock, Warden, and Hooper quote Descourtliz, who places this plant among the aromatic antispasmodics; a decoction of the young leaves and shoots is prescribed in the West Indies for febrifuge and antispasmodic baths, and an infusion of the leaves for cerebral affections, nephritis, and cachexia; the pounded leaves are applied locally for rheumatism; an extract is used for epilepsy and chorea; and the tincture is rubbed into the spine of children suffering from convulsions. Dymock, Warden, and Hooper and Rodriguez mention that the leaves have also been used successfully as an astringent in diarrhea. Standley states that in Mexico the leaves are said to be a remedy for itches. Rodriguez writes that in Uruguay, a decoction of the leaves is used as a vaginal and uterine wash, especially in leucorrhoea.
In Costa Rica, according to Pittier, a decoction of the flower buds is considered an effective remedy for diarrhea and flow of blood. Sanyal and Ghose report that the fruit is astringent and has a tendency to cause constipation. Martinez says that the fruit is anthelmintic in Mexico. Nadkarni states that guava jelly is tonic to the heart and good for constipation. The ripe fruit is good aperient, and should be eaten with the skin, for without it, costiveness results. The unripe fruit is said to be indigestible, causing vomiting and feverishness, but it is sometimes employed in diarrhea. Water in which the fruit is soaked is good for diabetes.
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