The root is a good substitute for licorice, is emollient and has an agreeable taste. The extract is useful in catarrhal diseases of the bronchi and in dysuria. The leaves contain the same properties as the root and an extract prepared from them is used as a substitute for licorice.
Botanical Description.—A vine, with leaves opposite, abruptly pinnate, a stylet taking the place of the terminal leaflet. Leaflets linear, entire, glabrous, tipped with a small point. Common petiole with 2 awl-shaped stipules at the base. Flowers in small racemes. Calyx gamosepalous, caducous, 4–5 short teeth. Corolla papilionaceous, wings horizontal. Stamens 9, monadelphous with bilocular anthers. Style very short. Stigma globose. Pod 4–5 cm. long, truncate at the ends, with 5–6 red seeds, each with a black spot.
Habitat.—Common in all mountainous regions of the islands. Grows near houses and roads.
Mucuna pruriens, DC. (M. prurita, Hook.; M. utilis, Wall.; Dolichos pruriens, L.; Carpopogon pruriens, Roxb.)
Nom. Vulg.—Nipay, Lipay, Vis.
Uses.—The pods are official as an anthelmintic in the Pharmacopœia of India. They are used in the form of an electuary triturated to the proper consistency with honey or syrup. The dose for adults is one soupspoonful, and for children a teaspoonful, given every morning for 3–4 consecutive days. The last day a purge is given to expel the lumbricoids.
Botanical Description.—A vine with ternate leaves. Flowers red, keel larger than the standard and wings. Pods about as thick as the little finger, lacking transverse grooves, curved in the form of the letter f, covered with bright red down, which causes an unendurable itching. They are divided into 3 or 4 oblique cells each containing a brown, shiny seed.
Habitat.—Luzon and Panay.
Erythrina Indica, Lam. (E. corallodendron, L.; E. carnea, Blanco.)
Nom. Vulg.—Dapdap, Kasindik, Tag.; Dapdap, Kabrab, Vis.; Dapdap, Sulbag̃, Pam.; Indian Coral Tree, Eng.