Medicinal Plant

LONICERA JAPONICA Thunb.

Local names: Honeysuckle, Japanese honeysuckle, woodbine (Engl.); orlve silva  (Portuguese).

Japanese honeysuckle is cultivated in Manila and other large towns for its fragrant, handsome, and profuse flowers. It is of very recent introduction, being a native of Japan.

This ornamental plant is hardy, low – climbing or trailing shrub up to 5 meters or more in length. The leaves are oblong, oblong-ovate, 3 to 6 centimeters long, 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters wide, pointed or blunt at the tip, blunt at the base, and borne on short petioles (stalks). The flowers, which are tubular, are 3 to 4 centimeters long, and white, but turn yellow with age; they are borne in pairs in the axils of the leaves on young shoots. The corolla is smooth; the tube is slender but gradually widens, and the limb has lips, the upper lip being board, erect, and divided into four-strap segments, and the lower having one linear-strap-shaped, recurved segment. The berries are black.

Read records that the vine contains saponin, tannin 8 per cent, and ash 8 per cent.

According to Stuart the flowers, vine, and leaves are employed in medicine by the Chinese. Prolonged use is said to increase vitality and to lengthen life. Antifebrile, corrective, and astringent properties are ascribed to it. Regnault says that the Chinese and Annamities use it in the treatment of all sorts of infections and cases of poisoning. It is also considered antisyphilitic. An infusion is employed in lotions against ulcers and abscesses. Hoehne reports that the plant is used in Brazil as a depurative and to facilitate parturition.

JASMINUM GRANDIFLORUM Linn.

Local names: Jasmin (Tag., Sp.); jasmine (Engl.).

Jasmin is cultivated in Manila and in other large towns of the Philippines for its very fragrant flowers. It is nowhere spontaneous. It is a native of India and is widely cultivated.

This ornamental plant is smooth, woody vine, reaching a length of 8 meters, often with pendulous branches. The leaves are odd-pinnate, and 6 to 9 centimeters long, with 7 to 9 leaflets. The lower leaflets are shortly stalked, while the upper one stalkless and often somewhat fused; both are ovate, 1 to 2 centimeters long, and pointed at the tip. The flowers are white with faint, pinkish streaks or purplish tinge outside, delightfully fragrant, and borne in lax, terminal inflorescences. The calyx-teeth, which are very slender, tube nearly 2 centimeters long; the spreading lobes are 1.5 centimeters long.

Wehmer records that the flowers contain a volatile oil, jasminol, and indol. Dymock, Warden, and Hooper state for which they propose the name jasminine. Nadkarni mentions in addition the presence of salycylic acid and an astringent principle in the leaves. Sanyal and Ghose maintain that the leaves contain a resinous substance. Burkill records that the essence contains among other substances, benzyl-acetate, linalol, indol, a ketone called jasmone.

The Filipinos use the water in which the flowers were macerated the night before as an eyewash, and a cataplasm of the flowers as a poultice to prevent a flow of milk.

Dymock, Warden, and Hooper state that the Hindu physicians prescribe the leaves as a remedy for skin diseases, ulcers of the mouth, otorrhea, etc. they quote Chakradatta, who mentions the use of fresh juice of the leaves as an application to soften corns, and the use of an oil prepared with it to be chewed by those who suffer from ulceration of the mucous membrane of the mouth. Mahomeran writers consider the plant to have deobstruent, anthelmintic, diuretic, and emmenagogue properties. Mir Muhammad Husain mentions the use of the flowers applied in the form of the plaster to the lions and pubes as an aphrodisiac.

According to Burkill, the oil is regarded as a tonic in China; he quotes Gerini, who says that in Siam an infusion of the flowers is used as a cosmetic after bathing.

JUSTICIA PROCUMBENS Linn.
Dianthera Americana Blanco
Dianthera ciliata Blanco
Rostellularia blancoi Hassk.
Rostellularia mollissima Nees
Rostellularia procumbens Nees
Justicia molissima Wall.

Justicia procumbens is found from the Batan Islands and northern Luzon to Mindanao, in most islands and provinces, in open places at low and medium altitudes. It also occurs in India to China and southward to Australia.

This is a slender, often tufted, prostrate or ascending, branched annual. The stems are 10 to 40 centimeters long. The leaves are elliptic to oblong-ovate or ovate, 7 to 20 millimeters long, 5 to 20 millimeters wide, obtuse at both ends, and entire or slightly crenate as to margin. The flowers are pink, 6 to 7 millimeters long, and borne in terminal, rather dense, cylindric spikes 1 to 5 centimeters long and about 5 millimeters in diameter. The bracts and calyx-teeth are green, linear-lanceolate, and hairy. The fruit (capsule) is slightly hairy and about 4 millimeters long.

In the Philippines Guerrero states that the leaves are used externally as an astringent in the cure of certain eruptions of the skin.

Nadkarni reports that the herb contains a bitter alkaloid and that it is used as a substitute for Fumaria. It is alternative and expectorant and is given in the form of infusion (1 to 20) in asthma, coughs, and rheumatism. The juice of the leaves is squeezed into the eyes incases of ophthalmia. Chopra says it is used as a laxative and diuretic. According to Stuart the odor of the whole plant is unpleasant; it is used in decoction for backache, plethora, and flatulence.