Part 3

Bic.--Bicol. Eng.--English. Iloc.--Ilocan. Indo-Eng.--Indo-English. Pam.--Pampango. Pan.--Pangasinan. Sp.--Spanish. Sp.-Fil.--Spanish-Filipino. Tag.--Tagalog. Vis.--Viscayan.

MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES

DICOTYLEDONOUS, POLYPETALOUS.

DILLENIACEÆ.

Tetracera macrophylla, Vall. (T. monocarpa, T. sarmentosa, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--Malakatmón, Tag.

Uses.--The wood of malakatmón is one of the best known and popular drugs of the Binondo market place. It is used as an infusion internally in the hæmoptysis of consumptives, and externally in the treatment of sore throat, its action being due to the large amount of tannin it contains. It is also employed in Malabar in the form of an infusion of the leaves of the species, T. Rheedi, to treat sore throat, mixing it with a decoction of rice called cange.

The Filipinos do not distinguish this species from the T. Assa.

Both are called malakatmón, and are employed indiscriminately to accomplish the same results. The silicious concretion obtained from the leaves is used as a polish in the form of polish paper.

Dose.--In infusion for internal use, 4 grams of wood to 1 liter of water; as a gargle, 10 to 15 grams to the liter.

Botanical Description.--A shrub with leaves alternate, oval, serrate, finely dentate with very short and stiff hairs. Flowers of a strong, rather agreeable odor, axillary, in panicles. Calyx, 4 sepals. Corolla, 4 petals. Stamens indefinite, expanding at the upper end and bearing 2 anthers. Carpels 3, with ovules indefinite in two series. Seeds with red arils.

Habitat.--In the vicinity of Manila. Blooms in July.

MAGNOLIACEÆ

Magnolia Family.

Illicium anisatum, L.

Nom. Vulg.--Anis estrellado, Badiana, Sp.; Sangki, Tag.; Star Anise, Eng.

Uses.--Although this plant does not grow in the Philippines, the use of its fruit is so common there that it demands a place in this work. It is employed chiefly as a condiment in the preparation of food, and its essential oil is used to prepare the native "anise cordial" by mixing it with alcohol obtained from the palm or from sugar cane.

The decoction of the fruit is given after meals as a tea-like beverage, to aid digestion or for its carminative effect in flatulent colic.

Star anise has an aromatic taste, slightly bitter and acrid, and a very marked perfume of anise which with its star-like form gives the plant one of its names. It is a very useful stimulant, tonic, stomachic and carminative.

It is official in all Pharmacopoeias and the pericarp is the part employed.

The dose is from 1 to 2 grams to 100 of water in infusion, to be taken in one draught.

According to Schlegel it contains the following substances: An essential oil 4.675; a green waxy material which melts at 51°, a resin, a gum and saponin. The essential oil is (almost) identical with that of anise from which it is impossible to distinguish it chemically. The only difference is that the former has a blander odor and solidifies at 1°.25 instead of 10°, as does the oil of anise.

Botanical Description.--The plant grows in the mountains of Yunnan, China, and in Tonquin. The part used in the Philippines is the fruit, being indeed the only part known here. This is composed of 8 woody follicles arranged about a central column in the form of a star. These follicles open at maturity and reveal the seeds, which are shining, smooth, ovoid, hard, of a pretty chestnut-red color. In the Philippines they are sold even in the smallest food-vending shops.

Michelia Champaca, L.

Nom. Vulg.--Tsampaka, Sampaka, Tag.; Champaca, Fil.-Span.

Uses.--The bark of the trunk is well known as a febrifuge and emmenagogue in India. It is slightly bitter and aromatic. Dr. H. Folliat has used it with success in the Island of Mauritius in the treatment of the common intermittent fevers; he administered the infusion (bark 30 grams, water 600 cc.)--or the decoction (bark 30 grams, water 1,200 cc.); boil till reduced to 600 cc.--giving a wine-glassful every hour just before and after the paroxysm.

An astringent decoction made from the leaves is used as a gargle in sore throat. The root is emmenagogue and the seeds are used in the treatment of anal fissure.

Dr. Hooper has found the following substances in the bark of the Champana: a volatile oil with a pine-like odor; a fixed oil, insoluble in alcohol, melting at 15° and forming soap with soda; a resin extremely bitter, acrid, brown in color; tannin; sugar; a bitter principle, albuminoids, coloring matters, mucilage and starch.