Balete - Halamang Gamot / Herbal Medicine

 Scientific name: Ficus stipulosa Miq. Linn.
Tagalog: Balete

 Glabrous spreading tree, up to 8 meters high, with numerous adventitious roots from the trunk and branches.
Leaves are smooth, leathery and shiny, slenderly acuminate and entire. The stipules are red, as long as the leaves.

Uses

• Skin eruptions and dermatitis: Boil one cup of chopped bark in 1/2 gallon of water for 10 mins; use decoction to wash involved areas, twice daily.

• Decoction of aerial rootlets used for wounds, cuts and sores.

• Bark is astringent and used as styptics for wounds.

• Decoction of latex for parasitic worms.