Euphorbiaceæ.
Spurge Family.
Euphorbia pilulifera, L. (E. capitata, Lam.; E. hirta, Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Golondrina, Sp.-Fil.; Gatasgatas, Batobatonis, Sayikan, Tag.; Buyayawa, Tawawa, Bowi, Vis.; Malismalis, Sisiwhan, Bolobotones, Magatas, Pam.
Uses.—This plant has a reputation in the Philippines as a hæmostatic of great efficiency, for which purpose the whole plant is crushed and applied as a poultice over the wound. Like all members of this family it abounds in milky juice. We have had no occasion to employ it as a hæmostatic, but do not doubt its action in view of the effect that it exercises on the circulation and the heart when given internally. In toxic doses experiment has demonstrated that it kills animals by suspension of the respiratory movements and those of the heart, which at first beats faster but gradually more slowly. It has no effect upon any other organ and is eliminated by the liver.
Matheson recommends it as an antispasmodic and has employed it also in dyspnœa of cardiac origin. I have used it in both these conditions in Manila with highly satisfactory results. I have found the most convenient form of administration to be the tincture in doses of 15–40 drops a day given in an infusion of althæa every 3 or 4 hours; the vehicle should be used liberally as it diminishes the irritant action of the euphorbia on the stomach. A decoction of 15 grams of the plant to 2 liters of water may be given in doses of from 6 to 12 tablespoonfuls daily. A proper dose of the alcoholic extract is 10 centigrams in 24 hours. Dr. Daruty, of Mauritius, gives the following formula:
| Euphorbia pilulifera dried in the shade | 30 grams. |
| Water | 1½ liters. |
| Boil till reduced to 1 liter, cool and add: | |
| Rum or cognac | 30 grams. |
Dose.—1 wineglassful 3 times a day.
This decoction relieves the most obstinate asthma, as well as cough and bronchial irritation. It is necessary to use the entire plant. The decoction is usually given in the morning, fasting, in the middle of the afternoon and at bedtime. In very stubborn cases another dose may be given in the middle of the night. Frequently the relief is immediate and in some cases a liter of the decoction is enough to effect a cure. If the symptoms return, it is easy to abort them; they are less distressing and, according to the statements of patients, the medicine “gives them air.”
Dr. Hicks Bunting found, in an analysis of the drug, 60 per cent. of insoluble residue, wax, “caucho,” resin, tannin, sugar, albuminoids, oxalate of calcium and other salts.
Dr. Marsset states that the active principle is soluble in water, in dilute alcohol; insoluble in ether, chloroform, bisulphide of carbon, and turpentine, but does not give the reaction.
The toxic dose is 1 gram of dried plant for each kilogram of weight of the animal.
Botanical Description.—A small creeping plant with milky juice. Stem 1–2° high, cylindrical, hairy and reddish in color. Leaves opposite, obliquely ovate, rhomboid, serrate, hairy. Petioles very short. Two pointed stipules at the base. Flowers yellowish in hemispherical umbels of 5 divisions, each subdivided in 2. Involucre universal. Calyx bell-shaped, laciniate, in 5 parts. Corolla, 5 petals, inserted on the divisions of the calyx, fleshy, orbicular, with an orbicular appendix at the base, concave and differing from the corolla in color. Stamens 8, inserted on the base of the calyx; filaments unequal in length, each bearing 2 anthers. Four filaments lacking anthers. Ovary with stalk longer than the flower, curved downward. Styles 3, bifid. Stigmas simple. Seed vessels 3, united, hairy, 3-angled, each bearing 1 red globose seed with a wrinkled surface.
Habitat.—Common in all parts of the islands and well known to the natives. The name by which it is best known in Manila is “golondrina.”
Euphorbia neriifolia, L. (E. ligularia, Roxb.; E. pentagona, Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Sorosoro, Sorog-sorog, Bait, Tag., Pam.; Karambauaya, Iloc.; Lengua de perro, Sp.-Fil.
Uses.—The principal medicinal use of this plant in the Philippines is the introduction of the hot juice of its fleshy leaves into the external auditory canal in cases of otorrhœa or of simple earache, whatever its cause.
The root is regarded in India as an antidote for snake bite and, indeed, the plant is sacred to Munsa, the snake divinity. During the months of July and August in some parts of India the natives make offerings of rice, milk and sugar to this sacred tree every Tuesday and Thursday, praying for protection from the bites of serpents.
The leaves contain an abundance of milky juice, acrid and very active, used in the treatment of several skin diseases. Like the species E. pilulifera it possesses antiasthmatic properties; Dr. S. C. Amcobury reports 6 cases treated with satisfactory results. Owing to the acrid quality of the juice great care should be maintained both in its internal and external use. The Sanscrit authors regard it as purgative and usually administer it with other drugs of the same action to increase its effect. Ainslie states that the native herb-doctors of India give the juice in intestinal obstruction and in the œdema of malarial cachexia. The dose is 1.25 grams in 24 hours given in 300 cc. of sweetened water in divided doses. This dose is, in my opinion, dangerous; 40–60 centigrams a day is more prudent.
Botanical Description.—A small tree, from 5 to 6° high. Trunk erect, jointed, 5-sided, at the angles 2 rows of thorns. Leaves spatulate, fleshy. Flowers yellowish. Calyx bell-shaped, 5-lobed. Corolla, numerous imbricated, spatulate petals with ravelled or fringed ends. Stamens in groups. Styles 3. Stigma coarse. Seed vessel, 3 carpels on a stalk.
Habitat.—In all parts of Luzon.
Euphorbia Tirucalli, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Consuelda, Sp.-Fil.; Katwit, Suelda, Tag.
Uses.—The milky juice of this species is very caustic. It is used chiefly in India mixed with oil as an embrocation for rheumatism; given internally it is regarded as an antisyphilitic. Dr. J. Shortt states that it is an excellent alterant in syphilis in dose of 30 centigrams, morning and evening. It is further employed in malarial hypertrophy of the spleen, in asthma and as a purgative; in a word the same virtues are attributed to it as to the foregoing species.
Botanical Description.—Small trees, 9–12° high. Trunk erect. Branches cylindrical, stumpy (not tapering), several very small leaves at the ends. Flowers yellowish, in umbels. Calyx, 5 rounded, fleshy sepals. Corolla, 5 groups of woolly hairs on the divisions of the calyx. Stamens 5, inserted on the sepals, with double or irregular anthers. Seed vessel, 3 carpels each with one seed.
Habitat.—Very common, especially in the suburbs of Manila where they serve as hedges.
Phyllanthus reticulatus, Müll. (Cica decandra, Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Tinatinaan, Tintatintahan, Malinta, Tag.; Sug̃ot-olag̃, Vis.
Uses.—The natives eat the little berries of this species, which are dark purple before and black after maturity, and use their juice for ink. The leaves are diuretic and refreshing; the bark alterant. In the bazaars of India the bark is sold commonly in pieces 1° long and as thick as the wrist; its taste is slightly sweet, color dark and the alterative dose of its decoction is 120–150 grams a day. In Concan they make a compound pill of the leaf-juice, powdered cubebs and camphor, to be dissolved in the mouth for ulcerated, bleeding or scorbutic gums. The juice is also given internally for urticaria.
Botanical Description.—Small trees, 12° or more high, with leaves pinnate, oval, entire, alternate, glabrous, downy when young. Common petiole, 2 stipules at the base. Flowers monœcious. Staminate: calyx, 5 colored sepals; no corolla; filaments 4, coarse, somewhat shorter than the calyx, the middle one thicker and 2-parted; anthers 10, 4 on the middle filament and two on each of the others. Pistillate: calyx and corolla same as staminate; nectary, 5 glandules on the base of the ovary. Fruit, a black berry seated within the calyx, crowned with 2 erect styles, 6 or 8 compartments each with a single seed.
Habitat.—Grows everywhere and is well known.
Phyllanthus Niruri, L.
P. urinaria, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Hierba de San Pablo, de San Pedro, Sp.
Uses.—This species is not used medicinally in the Philippines, but in India is given for its diuretic effect and has great repute in the treatment of genito-urinary diseases, dropsy and gonorrhœa. The infusion of the leaves of P. Niruri with Fenugreek seeds is a highly prized remedy for chronic dysentery, mentioned by Ainslie. The leaves are bitter and tonic and in Bombay they are in common use in gonorrhœa to correct the acidity of the urine. Bruised and mixed with salt they make a sort of jelly frequently used as an application for itch; without salt the same is used for contusions.
The dose of the leaf juice of both species, for internal use, is 15 grams a day in divided doses.
A decoction of the entire plant well dried and powdered, is given for jaundice in doses of 5 grams a day.
The milky juice of the stem is useful in the local treatment of ulcers. The bruised root is employed in Concan for neuralgia.
Botanical Description.—P. Niruri is an herb with straight stem. Leaves alternate, pinnate with stylet in place of the odd leaflet. Leaflets nearly oval, glabrous, 2 stipules at the base. Flowers monœcious, greenish, axillary; the staminate growing along the common petiole above the pistillate. Staminate: Calyx, 5 lanceolate, entire sepals; no corolla; 1 filament with 1 anther. Pistillate: Calyx and corolla as above; ovary free, 3 biovulate cells; style with 2 stigma-bearing branches. Fruit capsular, globose.
P. urinaria may be distinguished by its sessile flowers and reddish stem.
Habitat.—Very common in Manila and all over Luzon.
Jatropha Curcas, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Tuba, Tag.; Kasla, Vis.; Tawatawa, Iloc. (Seeds called “English Physic Nuts” in India.)
Uses.—The milky juice of the trunk and branches is a drastic purgative, too active for safety as a physic. Mixed with water it is used as a wash for atonic ulcers.
The seeds yield 25–30 per cent. of a yellowish oil, more active than castor oil as a purgative but less certain. Ten or twelve of the former equal in effect 30 to 40 drops of the latter. Its density is 0.919, and it differs from castor oil in being only slightly soluble in absolute alcohol. In some parts of the Philippines it is used for purposes of illumination, and it is exported to Europe to adulterate soaps and candles. It contains a little stearin which begins to be deposited at 9° and is entirely solidified at 0°.
The fruit is strongly purgative, and this action is not due to the oil but to a peculiar resin so active that 3 fruits produce drastic effects. Whatever purgative action the oil possesses is due to the resin which it contains in solution. It seems, therefore, preferable to treat the seeds with alcohol, thus dissolving the resin, and use the tincture thus obtained in place of the oil.
The natives use the plant to intoxicate the fish in ponds and sluggish streams.
The seeds of the species J. multifida, L., also called tuba in Tag., and mana, are likewise purgative in their action. Dr. Waring saw a case of poisoning with the fruit; the patient, a young man, suffered violent vomiting, intense pain in the stomach and head, and marked prostration. He recovered under the use of lime juice and stimulants.
Botanical Description.—The J. Curcas is a small tree growing as high as 9°. Leaves alternate, cordate, glabrous, 3–5 cut-lobed. Flowers yellowish-green, monœcious, in terminal umbels, staminate and pistillate flowers mingled without order. Staminate: Calyx, 5 unequal sepals; corolla bell-shaped, 5 petals, woolly within, a small notch at the end, bent downward; stamens 10, in 2 whorls of 5. Pistillate: Calyx and corolla as above; several tongue-like staminodes replace the stamens; ovary free, oblong, 3-celled, 1 ovule in each cell; style 3-branched. Seed vessel fleshy, of 3 capsules, each bearing 1 oval, coriaceous seed.
Habitat.—Luzon and Visayas.
Aleurites Moluccana, Willd. (A. triloba, Forst. and Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Lumbán, Kapili, Tag.; Belgaum or Indian Walnut, Indo-Eng.
Uses.—The kernels are rich in oil which is used for illumination and the manufacture of soap. For industrial purposes it is superior to linseed oil, according to the report of the Madras Drug Committee.
Dr. O’Rocke states that in doses of 1–2 ounces it acts as a gentle and sure purgative, producing copious bilious evacuations after 3–6 hours, without causing nausea, colic or other similar effects. The municipal physician of Sampaloc, Señor Xerez, states that he has frequently used this oil in Manila, as a purgative, and he agrees perfectly with Dr. O’Rocke as to its effect.
D. Anacleto del Rosario, the distinguished Filipino chemist, tells me that he once witnessed a case of poisoning by the fruit of the lumbán, the patient being a native boy. Doubtless the milky juice, so active in all the Euphorbiaceæ, was the cause of the symptoms. It is true that the kernel causes colic and copious alvine discharges.
Nellino’s chemical analysis of the seeds is as follows:
| Water | 5.25 |
| Fatty matter | 62.97 |
| Cellulose | 28.99 |
| Mineral matter | 2.79 |
The ashes contain the following matters:
| Lime | 28.69% |
| Magnesia | 6.01% |
| Potash | 11.23% |
| Phosphoric acid | 20.30% |
The oil is yellow, syrupy, transparent, odorless, insipid.
Botanical Description.—A tree with leaves bunched or clustered, 3–5 lobulate with as many nerves. Petioles about as long as the leaves. Flowers white, terminal in panicles, the pistillate mixed with the more numerous staminate flowers. Staminate: Calyx monophyllous, cylindrical, 2-toothed; corolla, 5 linear petals twice as long as the calyx; stamens 20 or more, joined in a column at their bases. Pistillate: Calyx and corolla as above; ovary of 2 or 3 uniovulate locules, encircled by a disk; style 2-or 3-branched. Seed vessel large, ovate, compressed, fleshy, 2 sutures at right angles, 2 compartments, in each a hard nut.
Habitat.—Grows all over Luzon and is well known to the natives.
Croton Tiglium, L. (C. glandulosum, C. muricatum, Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Tuba kamaisa, Tag.; The Purging Croton, Eng.
Uses.—The fruit is used by the Filipinos to intoxicate the fish in ponds and sluggish streams. The seeds contain an oil that is official in all Pharmacopœias as one of the most powerful hydragogue cathartics. As it is intensely irritating it should never be administered alone but combined with other substances, such as castor oil, or in pill form. The internal dose is 1 to 2 drops. It is considered a specific for lead colic and is indicated when not only purgation but active irritation of the digestive canal is desired.
Applied to the skin it is a strong irritant causing rapid and painful vesication. Great care should be exercised not to raise the hands to the eyes after touching the oil, as serious inflammation might result.
Botanical Description.—A small tree, 8–9° high, with rough trunk. Leaves alternate, ovate, acute, minutely serrate, both surfaces beset with sharp hairs. Flowers yellowish-white, monœcious. Staminate: Fewer than the pistillate, growing above them; calyx 5-toothed; corolla, 5 woolly petals; stamens 16, joined in the center. Pistillate: Calyx 5-toothed; corolla much less developed than in the staminate; ovary free, 3 uniovulate locules; styles 3, bifid. Seed vessel dry, with thin envelope bristling with stiff hairs; 3 carpels each containing a seed.
Habitat.—Common in Luzon.
Acalypha Indica, L. (A. Caroliniana, Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Not known.
Uses.—This plant is not used medicinally in the Philippines, but is very common in India. Dr. G. Bidie, of Madras, states that the expressed juice of the leaves is in great repute, wherever the plant grows, as an emetic for children and is safe, certain and speedy in its action. Like ipecacuanha it seems to have little tendency to act on the bowels or depress the vital powers, and it decidedly increases the secretion of the pulmonary organs. Probably an infusion of the dried leaves or an extract prepared from the green plant would retain all its active properties. The dose of the expressed juice for an infant is a teaspoonful.
Dr. A. E. Ross speaks highly of its use as an expectorant, ranking it in this respect with senega; he found it especially useful in the bronchitis of children. He also makes favorable report of a cataplasm of the leaves as a local application to syphilitic ulcers and as a means of relieving the pain attendant on the bites of venomous insects.
The alleged purgative action of the root noticed by Ainslie is confirmed by Dr. H. E. Busteed, who reports having used the expressed juice of the root and leaves as a laxative for children.
Langley, a military surgeon, states that in Canara the natives employ the leaf juice in congestive headache, soaking pledgets of cotton with it and introducing them into the nasal fossæ; the resultant nose bleed relieves the headache. The powder of the dry leaves is dusted on ulcers and putrid sores. In asthma and bronchitis, both of children and adults, Langley has used this plant with good results, and he recommends 1.25–3.50 grams of the tincture (100 grams of the fresh plant to 500 of alcohol, 90°) repeated several times a day; the effect is expectorant, nauseant and, in large doses, emetic.
It must be noted that only the young, growing plants are active.
The flowers of another species, A. hispida, Burm., called bugos in Tag. and Vis., is used in India for the dysentery.
Botanical Description.—A little plant, about 3° high. Leaves alternate, broad, lanceolate, 5-nerved, serrate from middle to apex. Petioles much longer than the leaves, 2 stipules at their bases. Flowers greenish, monœcious in axillary spikes, pedunculate, as long as the leaves, crowned by a prolongation of the axis in the form of a cross. Staminate: Numerous, in upper part of spike; calyx 4 parts; no corolla; stamens 8–16, small, free. Pistillate: Less in number, at the base of the spike; perianth of 3 imbricated leaflets; ovary, 3 uniovulate locules; style, 3 branches which also subdivide. Capsule 3-celled, each cell containing a globose seed with cicatrix.
Habitat.—Luzon, Panay and Mindanao. Blooms in October.
Echinus Philippensis, H. Baillon. (Croton Philippense, Lamk.; Rottlera tinctoria, Roxb.; Mallotus Philippensis, Müll.)
Nom. Vulg.—Banato, Tag.; Buas, Vuas, Iloc.; Monkey-face Tree, Kamala or Kamala Dye, Indo-Eng.
Uses.—The capsular fruit of this plant is thickly beset with reddish glands and hairs, which, when brushed off and gathered in powder form, constitute the kamala dye of the Hindoos. It was mentioned by the Arabian physicians of the tenth century under the names of Kanbil and Wars. In India the powder is highly valued as a yellow dye-stuff for silk. Medicinally it is used as an anthelmintic, the English physician Mackinnon, of the Bengal Hospital, having been the first to scientifically prove this property; he reported that it was successful in expelling the tape-worm. It is now official in the Pharmacopœia of India and also in the U. S. P. as an anthelmintic and purgative; in Switzerland it is commonly given to expel the bothriocephalus which abounds there, the lake fish acting as hosts.
The dose recommended by the Pharmacopœia of India is 8–12 grams, divided in 3 or 4 doses. This amount sometimes causes nausea and colic; in the third or fourth stool the tænia is commonly expelled in a lifeless condition. Dujardin-Beaumetz advises a dose of 30 grams of castor oil in case the tænia has not been expelled 2 hours after the last dose of kamala. The powder is efficacious but the tincture seems to be surer; the dose is 6 grams for children and 20 for adults, given in divided doses in aromatic water every hour for 6 hours. This tincture is prepared by macerating 200 grams of kamala in 500 cc. alcohol for 7 days; then filtering with expression and adding enough alcohol to complete the 500 cc.
The powder is also used in India as a local application in herpes circinata. It is insoluble in water; in ether and alcohol it yields 80% of a red resin. Anderson noted that a concentrated ethereal solution of kamala after a few days formed a solid crystalline mass, yellow, very soluble in ether; this substance he named rottlerin, C11H10O3.
Botanical Description.—A tree, 6–8 meters high, covered with stellate groups of short yellow hairs. Leaves alternate, petiolate, rhomboid-oval or lanceolate, acuminate, 3-nerved, entire or slightly dentate, upper surface glabrous, lower surface covered with woolly hairs and powdery red glands. Flowers yellowish-green, small, diœcious, apetalous, in spikes. Staminate: By 3′s in the axil of each bract; perianth, 3 or 5 deeply cut, lanceolate lobules; stamens 15–25, free, inserted in the center of the flower. Pistillate: In the axil of each bract; ovary, 3 locules each with 1 ovule, covered like the leaves with hairs and yellow, granular glands. Seed vessel globose, 3-celled, like ovary covered with hairs and glands.
Habitat.—Mountains of Morong, San Mateo, Tarlak, Bosoboso, Ilocos Norte, Albay and Batangas.
Ricinus communis, L. (Variety microcarpus, Müll.)
Nom. Vulg.—Tag̃antag̃an, Lig̃asina, Tag.; Tag̃antag̃an, Tawatawasig̃a, Iloc.; Castor Oil Plant, Eng.
Uses.—A purgative oil is expressed from the seeds, called “Aceite de Ricino” (castor oil). It operates mechanically in the intestinal tract and its action is rapid and is indicated whenever it is desired simply to empty the intestines without producing any irritating effect; it is, therefore, a purgative indicated in diseases of children, in pregnancy, and in hemorrhoidal congestions where a non-irritating evacuation of the rectum is desired. It is an anthelmintic, though not ordinarily given alone, but in combination with other drugs of a purely anthelmintic action, the object being to expel the worms which have been attacked by the specific.
Oil extracted simply by expression is less purgative than that obtained by treating the seeds with bisulphide of carbon and absolute alcohol; also less purgative than the seeds themselves, because it contains only a very small proportion of a drastic principle existing exclusively in the seeds; this principle is completely dissolved in the oil extracted by chemical process.
It is pale yellow in color, very viscid, with a characteristic mouldy odor. The purgative dose is 10–30 grams. A small dose may purge as actively as a larger one provided that the patient drink abundantly after the administration of the drug. The best method of disguising its taste is by giving it in half a cup of very strong, hot coffee. Just before the dose, take a swallow of coffee to disguise the taste even more effectually.
Castor oil enters into the composition of elastic collodion (simple collodion, 30 grams, castor oil, 2 grams). The leaves pounded and boiled are applied as a poultice to foul ulcers.
Botanical Description.—There are two forms of this variety in the Philippines, possessing the same properties and known by the same common name: R. viridis, Müll. (R. communis, Blanco) and R. subpurpurascens, Müll.; the former is the more common and has a glabrous, fistular stem. Leaves peltate, palmately cleft in 7 or 9 lobules, lanceolate, serrate. Petioles long. Flowers greenish, monœcious, the staminate ones in large panicled clusters below the pistillate. Filaments numerous, subdivided into several anther-bearing branches. Pistillate flowers, 3 sepals, 3 styles. Seed vessel, 3 prickly capsules, containing solitary seeds.
The R. subpurpurascens is distinguished from the former by bearing 2 glandules at the base of the leaves, the mulberry color of which latter suggests its common name, Tag̃antag̃an na morado, Tag., Vis.
Habitat.—Very common in Luzon, Mindanao and other islands.