Part 41

Nom. Vulg.--Sampaga, Tag.; Sampaguitas, Sp.-Fil.; Arabian Jasmin, Eng.

Uses.--The flower is the most popular and beloved of any in the Philippines (and is commonly referred to as the national flower). In decoction it is used as an eye-wash in catarrhal conjunctivitis. In India the flowers and the leaves have a merited reputation as a lactifuge; 2 handfuls of flowers bruised and applied without moistening, once or twice a day, sometimes checks the secretion of the milk within 24 hours, but generally 2 or 3 days are required for a complete effect.

Botanical Description.--Stems scarcely climbing, flattened, pubescent. Leaves opposite, cordate base, lanceolate-ovate, entire, glabrous. Flowers in small, close clusters, white, fragrant. Calyx-teeth 8-9, long and awl-shaped. Corolla, long tube, 7-8 rounded lobes. Stamens 2. Style 1. Stigma cleft in 2 laminæ.

APOCYNACEÆ.

Dogbane Family.

Allamanda cathartica, L.

Nom. Vulg.--Not known.

Uses.--As this plant has no common name in the Philippines it is most probable that the natives do not use it. The Portuguese introduced it into India from Brazil. A decoction of the leaves is purgative and is used in lead colic. The milky juice of the plant is emetic and cathartic in large doses, but simply laxative when given in doses of 8 or 10 drops. On account of its possible violent cathartic action great prudence should be exercised in prescribing it.

Botanical Description.--A twining shrub with leaves in fours, bright green, oblong, covered with rough hairs. Flowers in compound spikes, yellow. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla 5-lobed, funnel-form. Stamens 5, inserted in throat of corolla, which above them is closed by a crown of hairs. Ovary 1-celled with 2 many-ovuled placentæ. Style cylindrical, terminating in a bilobulate cone. Capsule globular, about the size of a pea, black, coriaceous, thorny, bivalvate. Seeds numerous, each encircled by a broad membranous wing.

Habitat.--In Calauang and other parts of Luzon and Panay.

Thevetia nerifolia, Suss. (Cerbera Thevetia, L. and Blanco)

Nom. Vulg.--Campanelo, Sp.-Fil.; Exile or Yellow Oleander, Eng.

Uses.--This shrub is very common in gardens, well known by its pretty yellow, bell-shaped flowers. The trunk bark possesses antiperiodic properties first described by Descourtilz and confirmed later by Dr. G. Bidie and Dr. J. Short. Both the latter used the tincture in 10-15-drop doses 3 times a day. This tincture was prepared by macerating for one week in 150 grams of alcohol 30 grams of fresh bark finely divided. This preparation operates as an emetic and purgative in doses of 30-60 drops. It is evident that the plant possesses very active, even poisonous properties and should be employed with great caution. The decoction of the bark is given as an emetic and cathartic, but very imprudently because there is no means of determining the quantity of active principle, shown by chemical analysis to be a dangerous product.

The fruit is very bitter and acrid. The seeds yield by expression 35 to 41% oil (De Vry) and 57% when treated with benzol. It has an agreeable odor resembling that of sweet almonds, its density is 0.9148 at 25° and it is perfectly clear and transparent at that temperature. At 15° it thickens and at 13° solidifies. According to Oudemans it consists of 63% triolein and 37% tripalmin and tristearin; it is not poisonous. After expression De Vry obtained from the caked residue 4% of a crystalline glucoside called by him thevetin. Blas, of the Academy of Medicine of Belgium, studied it later and described it as a white powder of small colorless scales, odorless, very bitter, soluble at 14° in 122 parts of water, in alcohol, in crystallizable acetic acid, insoluble in ether; formula C54H34O24. Concentrated sulphuric acid dissolves it, producing a dark red color that changes to cherry red and then after several hours to violet. The color disappears if water be added. Boiled in acid solution the glucoside changes to a new substance, theveresin (C48H70O17), white, amorphous, slightly soluble in boiling water and in alcohol, insoluble in benzine or chloroform, soluble in alkalies, very bitter. Both substances are energetic narcotic poisons; but the plant contains another even more powerful poison isolated by Warden, of Calcutta; it does not form crystals, it is very bitter, freely soluble in water, and is turned yellow by sulphuric and nitric acids.

Thevetin and theveresin exercise a marked toxic effect on the heart. The former induces emetic and cathartic phenomena, trembling and progressive weakness. The latter does not cause vomiting or diarrhoea, but anæsthesia and rigidity of the limbs. Both poisons arrest the heart in systole. Injected hypodermically they are irritant, are eliminated by the liver, but are not found in the urine.

Botanical Description.--A shrub, about 10° high, with leaves nearly sessile, somewhat bunched at the ends of the branches and overlapping, lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers about 2' long. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla straw-colored, cylindrical, very narrow below, but the limb very large, spreading into 5 lobes with greenish, superimposed borders. Stamens 5, inserted in the throat, anthers lanceolate. Ovaries 2, united at base, free above, unilocular. Style simple, enlarging at the base in a bilobed stigma. Fruit a fleshy drupe resembling somewhat a small apple, the pit very hard, semilunar, flattened, with 4 compartments and as many solitary seeds.

Habitat.--Common in all gardens and on the seashore.

Cerbera Odallam, Gaertn. (C. manghas, Bl. & Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--Toktok-kaló, Tag.

Uses.--The milky juice of the plant is emetic and purgative. The chemist De Vry has isolated from it a poisonous alkaloid analogous to "thevetin," which has just been considered. The seeds are likewise emetic and toxic. The Javanese call the fruit "bimaro" and affirm that it possesses the same properties as "datura." The bruised leaves are used locally for hepatic eruptions; the bark is used for the same purpose and is purgative.

The use of the plant is dangerous and is condemned by the Pharmacopoeia of India.

Botanical Description.--A small shrub with forked branches. Leaves (overlapping) at ends of branches, lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers in umbellate spikes. Calyx, 5 caducous lobules. Corolla white, twisted, cylindrical, with salver-shaped limb divided in 5 rhomboid lobes, throat stellate and woolly. Stamens 5. Filaments joined to the corolla, their ends thickened. Anthers arrow-shaped. Ovary, 2 uniovulate locules. Style, same length as stamens. Stigma thick, conical, lobulate. Two drupes joined at the base (one usually aborted), brown, large, oval, fleshy, with woody fibrous nut of a single flattened seed.

Habitat.--Luzon. Blooms in July.

Plumeria acutifolia, Poir. (P. alba, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.--Calachuche, Sp.-Fil.; Kalatsutsi, Kalasusi, Tag.

Uses.--This tree, beloved for its fragrant flowers, has a wide therapeutic use in India and the Philippines. The bark is a bitter hydragogue cathartic and is given in decoction (5-10 grams to 200 water) principally for dropsy; however the milky juice of the trunk is preferable for this purpose, given in emulsion in doses of 0.50-0.80 grams. The bark and the tips of the branches are given as an emmenagogue.

The bark of the root and of the trunk is an excellent remedy for blenorrhagia. The fresh bark is thoroughly comminuted and mixed with sweetened water in the proportion of 60 grams to 4 liters; this mixture is put in the sun for 4 days, and shaken from time to time. It is then strained and given in doses of 4-5 glassfuls a day, at the same time with refreshing and emollient drinks, and prolonged tepid baths. At first this preparation exerts a purgative action, but later acts upon the urinary organs, rapidly lessening the suppurative process in urethritis. The bark may also be associated with wine or beer, in the proportion of 30 grains to the liter, the dose being 2-4 small cupfuls a day and Dr. Grosourdy employs the extract of the bark in doses aggregating 0.20-0.25 gram a day, gradually increased till at the end of a week 6 grams are taken daily (Dr. J. Amadeo).

The bruised leaves are applied locally to contusions to reduce the swelling. The juice is used externally as a rubefacient in rheumatic affections of the joints. In Concan they use a decoction of the root for diarrhoea. The flower buds are chewed with buyo, for intermittent fever and the juice is applied locally for itch.