The incised trunk exudes a gum which is used in India as a substitute for gum arabic and there is an active trade in this gum in the bazars of Bombay and Calcutta. According to Pereira, it was at one time imported into England from the east of India under the name of gum arabic. It exists in the form of irregular, semitransparent pieces, of a brownish-red color. With water it forms a mucilage as adhesive as gum arabic, and this solution reddens litmus paper. It is dextrogyrous and is precipitated by the neutral acetate of lead and by caustic baryta.
Botanical Description.—Tree 3–4 meters high. Leaves fragrant, opposite, odd-pinnate. Leaflets, 2 pairs, lanceolate, entire, and glabrous. Common petiole flattened above. Flowers terminal, white, racemose, with 2 flattened peduncles. Calyx inferior, with 5–6 divisions. Corolla, 5–6 petals. Anthers oval. Ovary oblong, 5-lobuled. Style short, caducous. Stigma spindle-shaped. Ovules numerous, compressed, in several series. Fruit pulpy, globose, with woody rind, one compartment and many compressed, oblong seeds.
Habitat.—Mountains of Angat. Woods of Catugán (Iloilo).
Simarubaceæ.
Quassia Family.
Samadera Indica, Gaertn. (Niota tetrapela, DC. & Blanco; Manungala pendula, Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Manungal, Tag., Pam., Bicol.; Manunagl, Linatoganak, Palagarium, Daraput, Vis.
Uses.—The wood and seeds contain an intensely bitter principle. The Filipinos make cups and vases of the wood and allow water to stand in them 6–12 hours, thus preparing a solution of the bitter principle of the plant which they use in various stomach disorders.
Vrij has extracted from the seeds a 33% oil of a bright yellow color, composed, according to Oudermans, of 84 parts olein to 16 of palmitin and stearin.
The bitter principle contained in the root, wood and bark was discovered by Blunse who named it samaderin; it is a white, crystalline, foliaceous substance, more soluble in water than in alcohol, fusible. Nitric and hydrochloric acids color it yellow. Sulphuric acid immediately forms a violet red color which disappears as iridescent, feathery crystals are precipitated. (D. Beaumentz et Egasse.)