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.