The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines, Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera [book club suggestions TXT] 📗

Madder Family.

Hymenodictyon excelsum, Wall. (H. Horsfieldii, Miq.; Chinchona excelsa, Roxb.; Exostema Philippicum, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.—Huligaga, Tag.

Uses.—The bark of this tree has a wide reputation in India as a tonic and febrifuge. The inner layer of the bark possesses astringent and bitter properties much like quinine. Ainslie states that it is used in India to tan hides and therapeutically where an astringent is required. O’Shaughnessy experimented with it in the hospital of the Medical College of Calcutta and reported good tonic and antipyretic effects.

In 1870, according to Dymock, Broughton analyzed the fresh bark and reported that the bitter taste was due to esculin, which after drying and coming in contact with decomposing organic matter is transformed into the almost tasteless esculetin. Naylor studied the bark at a later period, and attributed the bitterness to an alkaloid that he named hymenodictyonine. This substance exists in the form of a gelatinous mass, cream-colored, very hygroscopic. An ethereal solution, carefully evaporated, deposits it in the form of crystals. Its empirical form is C23H40N2; it is probably volatile and is notable for its lack of oxygen. It differs from quinoidine in that it is inactive (?) and that in combination with platinum it retains less of this metal than does quinoidine. It differs from paricine in its proportion of hydrogen, and from berberine in containing more carbon. In the presence of sulphuric acid its solution assumes a yellow color, changing to wine-red and then to dark red. Naylor extracted another principle which he found combined with the alkaloid in a soda precipitate of the latter; it is a product of the decomposition of a glucose, the formula of which is C25H49O7. This compound remains insoluble when the alkaloid is treated with ether. Repeated boiling in alcohol renders it colorless. It is bitter, soluble in alcohol and dilute acids; insoluble in ether and chloroform. Reaction, neutral.

Botanical Description.—A large tree, with leaves opposite, oval, entire, acute, downy. Petioles long, flat above, with 2 stipules. Flowers axillary, in compound verticillate racemes. Calyx adherent, with 5 promptly deciduous teeth which leave a scar that also disappears. Corolla much longer than the calyx, funnel-form, the limb 5-cleft. Stamens 5, inserted near the middle of the tube. Filaments rudimentary. Anthers 2-celled. Style longer than the corolla. Stigma globose. Seed-vessel rather rough, ovoid, flattened, of 2 compartments, where are inserted numerous seeds, imbricated, circular, encircled by an entire wing.

Habitat.—Angat and the woods of San Mateo. Blooms in August. (P. Blanco states further that this tree grows to a height of about 3 yards in Angat and that it exhales a strong odor resembling that of vinegar at times, and again like that of tobacco.)

Oldenlandia corymbosa, L. (O. biflora, Lam.; O. ramosa, Roxb.; O. herbacea and serabrida, DC.; O. burmaniana, Mig.)

Nom. Vulg.—Doubtful.

Uses.—The Sanscrit writers often mention this plant as an important remedy for the fevers due, according to their theories, to disordered bile, i. e., remittent fevers, accompanied by gastric irritability and nervous depression. The entire plant is used to make a decoction, often combined with aromatics. Dymock observed in Goa that this plant could be gotten in all the shops of the herb-venders, and that it was widely used as an alterative in mild fevers in combination with “Hydrocotyle Asiatica and Adiantum lunulatum.”

In Concan they apply the juice to the hands and feet in fevers, giving at the same time a dose of one “tola” (6.80 grams) in sweetened water or milk. This juice is obtained by soaking the bruised plant in water. In remittent fever the decoction is also used as a liniment for the whole body. It is given internally for skin eruptions due to excessive heat, especially “lichen tropicus.”

Botanical Description.—A small herb, stem straight, about 30 centimeters high, glabrous, dichotomous. Leaves opposite, linear, green, lanceolate, stipulate. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, axillary, solitary, or in pairs, alternate or opposite. Calyx gamosepalous with 5 short teeth. Corolla gamopetalous, funnel-shaped. Stamens 5, free, inserted in the tube of the corolla. Ovary inserted in the hollow of the receptacle, 2 many-ovuled locules. Style simple, ending in a bifid stigma. Capsule rounded-oval, membranous. Seeds numerous, polyhedrous, albuminous, surface granular.

Habitat.—In the rice fields.

Randia dumetorum, Lam. (R. longispina, DC.; R. aculata, Blanco; R. stipulosa, Miq.; Gardenia spinosa, Blanco.)

Nom. Vulg.—Sinampaga, Tag.

Uses.—The fruit is used in some parts of India to kill the fish in ponds and sluggish rivers, the same use to which they sometimes put the “Cocculus Indicus.” It is prescribed as an emetic by the Sanscrit and Arabic medical authors of India. Mooden Sheriff ascribes its emetic properties to the pulp alone, the epicarp and seeds being inactive according to his authority. It is a substitute for ipecac even in the treatment of dysentery in which case the decoction of the trunk bark is also used.

The dried and powdered pulp is given in dose of 2.50 grams as an emetic and 1–2 grams as an antidysenteric. To prepare the fresh fruit for administration as an emetic, mash 2–3, macerate 15 minutes in 150–200 grams of water and filter. It acts in a few minutes and its effect may be hastened by giving tepid water or tickling the fauces.

Botanical Description.—A shrub with straight, thorny stem, leaves sessile, springing from the buds, occurring in threes, obtusely lanceolate, entire, glabrous. Flowers solitary or in pairs, very fragrant. Calyx gamosepalous with 10 toothlets. Corolla twisted, arched, cleft in the middle, throat nude, limb slashed in 5 large glabrous parts. Stamens 5. Filaments short, inserted on corolla. Style 1. Stigma bifid. Fruit inferior, about the size of a crab apple, crowned by the remains of the calyx, smooth, yellow, fleshy, 1-celled with many seeds.

Habitat.—On the coast of Luzon. Blooms in May.

Ixora coccinea, L. (I. bandhuca, Roxb.)

Nom. Vulg.—Santan, Tag.

Uses.—The handsome red flowers are used in decoction for hæmoptysis and catarrhal bronchitis. Both root and flower are astringent and are given for dysentery. In Concan they cook 2 “tolas” (13.60 grams) of the flowers in lard, together with coriander and “mesua ferrea,” add a little candied sugar and divide the mass into large pills to be given twice a day.

The fresh root in the form of an alcoholic tincture has been recommended by Deb for dysentery, the dose 2–4 grams in an appropriate potion. The tincture of the fresh plant is prepared by macerating 126 grams of the fresh root 15 days in 473 grams alcohol. The plant has been used in intermittent fevers and various skin diseases.

Botanical Description.—A shrub cultivated in all gardens, 6–8° high. Leaves oval, entire, glabrous. Flowers in terminal umbels, white, pink or red. Corolla tubular with limb cleft in 4 rounded lobes. The plant is so well known that further description would be superfluous.

Coffea Arabica, L.

Nom. Vulg.—Cafe, Sp.; Coffee, Eng.

Uses.—The infusion of roasted and ground coffee seeds constitutes a beverage of Arabic origin, but now common all over the world. In the Philippines, where a few years ago the coffee plant was only cultivated in gardens, the harvest has assumed such proportions that it now constitutes one of the greatest sources of agricultural wealth. Its use is becoming more general every day and the discovery of its alkaloid “caffeine” the therapeutical use of which is also steadily increasing, has given new importance to the seed on account of its increasing demand in the drug trade. When newly harvested its taste is not very agreeable, for it needs considerable time—2 or 3 years—in which to dry completely, before it acquires the aromatic properties and the savor of which it is susceptible. General Morin relates an incident of having drunk a delicious infusion of coffee made from authentic Moka that had been kept for fifty years, of course under ideal conditions of preservation.

In civilized countries coffee is an article of prime necessity as a food; here we shall consider it therapeutically under two heads, as a tonic-stimulant and as an antiseptic. As caffeine is the principle that acts upon the heart we shall consider the cardiac properties of coffee under the head of that alkaloid, so important that it may best be studied separately.

There are two preparations of coffee, the decoction used by the Arabs and the infusion, used in Europe and adopted in the Philippines. The decoction forms a tonic and aromatic drink devoid of any excitant properties, but the infusion is highly excitant and should not be taken in such large amounts as the decoction, for its action may be powerful enough to cause headache, nausea, trembling of the extremities and disorders of vision and hearing. These phenomena however are not dangerous and rapidly subside as soon as the urine eliminates the substances that cause them.

Infusion of coffee stimulates especially the cerebral functions and the circulation; as to its digestive properties, opinion is divided but it is more probable that it lacks them and that coffee taken after meals owes its reputation as a digestive aid to two distinct factors—the temperature and the sugar. Without doubt it exerts an anaphrodisiac action, on account of which the illustrious Linnæus called it the “drink of eunuchs.” This action seems incompatible with the fact that the Arabs, who are so much given to the abuse of the pleasures forbidden to eunuchs are most addicted to the use and abuse of coffee. The explanation rests in the form in which they consume their coffee, namely the decoction, which is free from the sedative principle of the seed, that undoubtedly resides in the aromatic ingredient “cafeol.”

Coffee is contraindicated in hysterical and nervous persons, in children and in those who suffer with insomnia or palpitation. It counteracts sleep and coma, being very useful in poisoning by opium or its alkaloids. Its stimulant action is as rapid as that of alcohol. On several occasions it has yielded me marked results when given by stomach or by enema in cases of nervous and cardiac depression. Indeed it is a remedy that I cannot recommend too highly and each day leaves me more convinced of its therapeutic activity and certainty.

Attention has only lately been directed to the antiseptic property of coffee though we have long been availing ourselves of that property without knowing it; this is true of many other medicinal agents, indeed of all that the modern studies of bacteriology have presented to us as antifermentives and microbicides. Roasted coffee in powder form gives good results if dusted over ulcers and gangrenous sores, rapidly improving their appearance and destroying the fœtid odor. It corrects the unhygienic properties of non-potable water and therefore enters into the army and navy ration of nearly all the nations of Europe. In epidemics of disease every physician should advise its use in mild infusion as a regular beverage.

Dr.