The Medicinal Plants of the Philippines

The medical knowledge represented in this book is over a century old. The publication of this book is for historical interest only, and is not to be construed as medical advice by Project Gutenberg or its volunteers. Medicinal plants should not be used without consulting a trained medical professional. Medical science has made considerable progress since this book was written. Recommendations or prescriptions may have been superseded by better alternatives, or invalidated altogether.
The letter g̃ used in this book has the sound of the letters ng in the English word sing . Other publications sometimes used n͠g for the same sound, while in modern Philippine orthography, this sound is written as ng .

Medicinal Plants of the Philippine Archipelago

Copyright, 1901, by P. Blakiston’s Son & Co.

This translation was undertaken with the especial object of facilitating the study of the native medicinal plants by the numerous medical officers stationed at small posts throughout the Philippines. In order to aid in the recognition of these plants, the botanical descriptions have been revised to the extent of adding, where possible, the size and shape of the plant, English name, length of leaves, color of flowers, etc., in many instances supplying the entire botanical description where it had been omitted on account of general familiarity with the plant. Comparing the few analyses that I have had an opportunity to make with corresponding ones in the native works from which Dr. Tavera has taken his botanical descriptions, I am impressed with the necessity for a revision of the Botany of the Philippines. However, as the therapeutic properties of the flora are of foremost interest to the medical profession I have not hesitated to publish the book in its present form as an entering wedge, leaving to those better fitted the great work of classifying the flora of these islands in accordance with modern botanical science.
Dr. Tavera has faithfully described the Malay and Hindu therapeutics of the present day, enriching his description by observations founded on a long practice in Paris and in his own native Luzon. From this potpourri of scientific therapeutics and ignorant, superstitious drugging the interested physician will elicit not a few useful data concerning the treatment of disease in the tropics, and at the same time gain a more intimate knowledge of both the people and plants of our new Asiatic possessions.