Amarillo - Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

Scientific name: Tagetes erecta Linn

English: Marigold

Tagalog: Amarillo

 A rather coarse, erect, glabrous branched, rank-smelling annual herb, 0.4 to 1 m high. Leaves: 4 to 11 cm long, very deeply pinnatifid, the lobe lanceolate, coarsely and sharply toothed, 1 to 2.5 cm long. Flowers: heads solitary, long-peduncled, the peduncle thickened upward, 2.5 to 3.5 cm long, 2 to 4 cm in diameter, the involucre green. Ray flowers 1-seriate, female, the ligule entire or 2-toothed, short or long; disk flowers, perfect, regular, tubular limb usually somewhat enlarged, 5-fid, flowers pale to deep yellow. Fruits: achenes, linear, narrowed below, compressed or angled, 6 to 7 mm long.

Distribution
Ornamental cultivation throughout most of Philippines,
Spontaneous and naturalized in some localities.
Flowering all year.

Parts utilized
Flower.
Collect from October to January.
Sun-dry.

Properties
Tonic, emmenagogue, disperses contusions.

Uses:
Anemia,Irregular menstruation, abdominal pain during menstrual period, Rheumatic muscular and bone pain.

Kalatsusi - Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

Scientific name: Plumeria acuminata Ait

English: Frangipani, Temple power, Graveyard flower

Tagalog: Kalatsutsi

Small tree, 3 to 7 m high, stem smooth and shining, succulent, with abundant white latex; easily breaks.
· Leaves: crowded at the terminal end of the branch, commonly oblong in shape, reaching a length of 40 cm and a width of 7 cm.
· Flowers: fragrant, the upper portion whitish, while the inner lower portion yellow, 5 – 6 cm long.
· Fruits: linear-oblong or ellipsoid follicles.

Distribution
Usually cultivated for ornamental purposes.
There are several species of cultivated Plumiera, very similar to P. rubra but for the color of the corolla.

Parts utilized
· Bark, leaves and flowers.
· Collect from May to October.
· Sun-dry.

Constituents
Flowers suppose to be source of perfume known as “Frangipiani.”
Bark contains a bitter glucoside, plumierid (2%).
Latex contains resins, caoutchouc and calcium salts of plumieric acid: cerotinic acid and lupeol.
Leaves contain a volatile oil.

Characteristics and Pharmacological Effects
Sweet tasting and neither warming nor cooling in effect, aromatic.
Antipyretic, diuretic, emmenagogue, febrifuge, purgative, rubefacient.

Medicinal Uses

• Decoction of bark is used as purgative, emmenagogue, and febrifuge.
• Preventive for heat stroke: the material may be taken as a cooling tea.
• For dysentery, diarrhea during summer season: use 12 to 24 gms of dried material in decoction.
• Arthritis, rheumatism, pruritic skin lesions: Mix the latex (sap) with coconut oil, warm, and apply to affected area.
• Decoction of the bark is used as a counterirritant on the gums for toothache.
• The latex mixed with coconut oil is used for itching.
• The juice is rubefacient in rheumatic pains, and with camphor, is also used for itching.
• A poultice of heated leaves is beneficial for swellings.
• Decoction of leaves for cracks and eruptions of the soles of the feet.
• Infusion or extract from leaves is used for asthma.

Kamantigui - Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

Scientific name: Impatens balsamina L.

English: Touch me not balsam

Tagalog: Kamantigui

 An erect, succulent, branched herb , 1 m high or less.

• Leaves: glabrous or somewhat pubescent, 3 to 5 cm long, narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate acuminate, deeply serrate, alternate, the petioles with basal glands as seen under a magnifying glass.

• Flowers: axillary, showy, 2 to 3 cm long, usually pink, but forms with white, red, purple, or variegated petals are also found in cultivation. The sepal spur is long and slender. The stamens are 5, filaments short, broad, anthers uniting. The ovary is 5-celled, the stigma, 5-toothed, the ovules many.

• Fruits: loculicidal capsules, pubescent and explosive when ripe. The seeds are small and rounded.

Distribution

• Widely cultivated for ornamental purposes, throughout the Philippines.

• Seed propagation.

Constituents
Leaves, sulfur and pectin; roots, peroxidase; seeds, oil and phenol.

Parts utilized

• Roots, stems, flowers, and seeds.
• Collect, then sun-dry.

Uses

• Snake bite, contusion, painful inflammation, carbuncles, dysmenorrhea, lumbago: use dried flowers, 3 to 6 gms or seed preparation, 3 to 7 gms or the entire plant, 9 to 15 gms, boil to decoction and drink.
• For external use on any bruise or painful area; crush fresh plant and poultice the affected parts of the body.

Pandakaki-puti – Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

Scientific name: Tabernaemontana pandacaqui Poir

Tagalog: Pandakaki-puti

 Erect, branched and smooth shrub, 1-3 meters high. Leaves are short-stalked, elliptic-lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, 5-12 cms, narrowed at both ends. Inflorescence are axillary and terminal; the flowers are few. Calyx is green, ovoid, and short. Corolla is white, slender-tubed, 1.7 cm long; limb is 2 to 2.5 cm in diameter, composed of five, spreading, falcate, lanceolate lobes. Follicles are red, oblong, 2-4 cm long, and longitudinally ridged.

Distribution
Common in thickets at low altitudes.

Parts utilized
Leaves.

Medicinal uses:

• Eczema: Boil 3 cups of chopped leaves in one gallon of water for 10 minutes; add 2 gallons of hot water.Also, fry the fresh leaves in oil and apply to itchy skins lesions for symptomatic relief.
• Wound healing: Leaf juice.
• Hot Foot Baths: A local immersion bath covering the feet, ankles and legs used for a variety of conditions: To relieve head, chest and pelvic congestion; to stop nosebleeds; to relieve spasms and pains of feet and legs; to induce sweating; to relieve menstrual cramps and headaches.
• Leaves applied as cataplasm on abdomen to hasten childbirth.
• Erectile dysfunction: Recent use as “herbal viagra.” Boil 15-25 leaves in 3 glasses of water for 10 minutes; drink the decoction. (Note: Like many of the herbal medicines touted as “herbal viagra,” kampupot use is rural folkloric with no known scientific or pharmacologic basis for its claim.)
• Decoction of root and bark used for a varitety of stomach and intestinal ailments.
• The white sap of the stem is applied to thorn injuries and to hasten the surfacing of the thorn fragment.

Bawang ( Garlic ) - Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

Scientific name: Allium sativum Linn 

English: Garlic

Tagalog: Bawangm     

 Bawang is cultivated throughout the Philippines. The Filipino variety of Bawang is very small, and four times more expensive than the imported varieties of bawang found in the markets. The reason for this is the superior quality and pungency of the small tagalog (Filipino) variety. Bawang is one of our four “power herbs” having a long history and proof of being a very effective medicinal herb. bawang is a diaphoretic, diuretic, expectorant, anthelmintic, and stimulant. As an antiseptic, its use has long been recognized. In World War I it was widely employed in the control of suppuration in wounds. The raw juice was expressed, diluted with water, and put on swabs of sterilized Sphagnum moss, which were applied to the wound. Where this treatment was given, it was proved that there were no septic results, and the lives of thousands of men were saved by its use.

Bawang is an invaluable medicine for asthma, hoarseness, coughs, difficulty of breathing, and most other disorders of the lungs, being of particular virtue in chronic bronchitis, on account of its powers of promoting expectoration. The successful treatment of tubercular consumption by bawang has been recorded. The successful treatment of tubercular consumption by bawang has been recorded. In the Philippines, the bulbs are prescribed for high blood pressure. Dr. James Balch, in his book “The Super Anti-Oxidants,” states that garlic acts as a super antioxidant, lowers blood pressure, boosts the immune system, balances blood sugar, prevents heart disease, assists in fat metabolism, and aids in cancer prevention.

Bunga - Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

Scientific name: Areca catechu L.

English: Betel-nut Palm

Tagalog: Bunga de China

Betel, common name for a tropical vine (see Pepper), sometimes called betel pepper. In Asia and the East Indies the leaves of the plant, together with a little quicklime, are used to wrap the seed kernel (called betel nut or areca nut) of the betel palm. Chewing this preparation (also called betel) stains the saliva bright red and eventually darkens the teeth. An alkaloid in the nut acts as a stimulant and a tonic.

Scientific classification: The betel belongs to the family Piperaceae. It is classified as Piper betle. The betel nut palm belongs to the family Arecaceae (or Palmae) and is classified as Areca catechu.