Gramineæ.
Grass Family.
Zea Mays, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Maíz, Sp.; Maize, Corn, Eng.
Uses.—Corn is an extensive article of diet in the Philippines, but has the reputation of being indigestible. This is true when it is eaten in the grain, but in the form of meal it is easily digested and highly nutritious. The tassels have been used in the Philippines from time immemorial in decoction as a diuretic, for which property they received notice in the Medical World of Paris about the year 1876. The entire plant is diuretic and the natives give the decoction of the stalk for various diseases of the bladder and kidneys. An extract of the tassels has been put on the market, but it is better to administer a decoction made from 20 grams of tassel to 1 liter of water to be taken at will during the day. Rademaker and Fischer give the following chemical composition:
| Fixed oil | 5.25 |
| Resin, crystalline matter and chlorophyl | 3.25 |
| Maizenic acid | 2.25 |
| Sugar and gum | 19.50 |
| Albuminoids | 3.50 |
| Salts and extracts | 5.50 |
| Cellulose | 37.00 |
| Water | 20.00 |
The fixed oil is bright yellow, saponifiable by potash, soluble in chloroform and ether, insoluble in alcohol, solidifies at 10°.
Habitat.—Very common in all parts of the islands.
Andropogon Schoenanthes, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Salay, Tag̃lad, Tag.; Paja de Meca, Sp.-Fil.; Baliyoko, Vis.; Geranium Grass, Eng.
Uses.—The Filipino women use the leaves to perfume their gogo hair-wash. The decoction of the leaves is used internally as a diuretic (10 grams to a liter of water) and also to bathe pregnant women. The roots also are diuretic.
A Manila pharmacist, D. Rosendo García, has obtained a good quality of the fixed oil of this plant. In India they call this essence rusa, geranium and gin-gembre (nimar oil, Eng.); the annual export from Bombay is over 40,000 English pounds. It is dextrogyrous and its formula is C5H4.
Another species, the A. nardus, L., commonly called “raiz de mora” (mulberry root), “citronella,” Eng., possesses the same therapeutic properties as the former. It also possesses an agreeable perfume and yields an essential oil, which, like rusa, is used to adulterate Attar of Roses.
The dried root is widely used in the Philippines and in Europe as well, to preserve clothing from moths and other destructive insects, at the same time giving them a sweet odor. In India the decoction is used internally, 10 grams to a liter of water, in the treatment of rheumatism and as a diuretic.
Botanical Description.—An indigenous grass with sword-shaped leaves about 4° high, tapering at the base, possessing a sweet odor. Root thick, irregular, rough, formed by the union of several small rootlets.
Saccharum officinarum, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Cañamiel, Caña de azúcar, Caña dulc, Sp.; Tubo, Tag.; Sugar Cane, Eng.
Uses.—The Filipinos are very fond of the fresh cane. The juice, which is extracted by means of primitive wooden presses, is used as a drink mixed with lemon juice or vino and is sold in markets and public places as a popular beverage on hot days. A tepid juice, extracted from heated cane is given for catarrhal troubles. This use of the juice is the only one peculiar to the Philippines. Its general use and properties are universally familiar and are amply treated in the materia medica.
Botanical Description.—This plant is so universally familiar that it is unnecessary to describe it. More than 20 varieties are found in the Philippines.
Habitat.—Throughout the islands, especially in the Island of Negros and the Luzon Provinces of Pampanga, Bulacan and Nueva Ecija.
Oriza, L.
Nom. Vulg.—Arroz, Sp.; Palay, Tag. (the plant and the unhusked rice); Bigas, Tag. (the husked rice); Rice, Eng.
Uses.—All the people of Indo-China, China, Japan and the greater part of the Indian Archipelago eat rice as Europeans do bread.
In the Philippines an immense variety of rice grows and in the World’s Fair at Paris, in 1889, Señor D. Regino García, of Manila, presented a unique collection of 147 varieties. The rice grown in high lands above irrigation is called “arroz de secano” and mountain rice, and that grown in low and irrigated land is called “arroz de sementera” and swamp rice. The two kinds are equally valuable as food.
The proportion of starch in rice is large, but it contains but a small amount of gluten, and therefore a large amount must be eaten in order to obtain sufficient nutritive elements.
| Water | 5.00 |
| Starch | 85.07 |
| Parenchyma | 4.80 |
| Nitrogenous matter | 3.68 |
| Crystallizable sugar | 0.29 |
| Gummy matter | 1.71 |
| Oil | 0.13 |
| Phosphate of lime | 0.40 |
| Chloride of potash, phosphate of potash, acetic acid, calcareous vegetable salt, salt of potash, sulphur | Traces. |
In the Filipino therapeutics rice has an extensive use, especially in the form of a decoction called cange, which is commonly given in the treatment of diarrhœa and dysentery, with good results. Cooked as a sort of mush it may be used as a substitute for linseed poultices and has the great advantage of not becoming rancid. Roasted and powdered it is dusted upon wounds or abrasions of the skin and forms a dry and absorbent covering under which they heal rapidly.
It has lately been claimed that beriberi is due to a microorganism found in rice under certain abnormal conditions; this claim is not yet firmly established and beriberi is still one of the many problems in medicine which are awaiting solution.
Habitat.—All parts of the Archipelago.