Botanical Description.--A twining shrub with leaves in fours, bright
green, oblong, covered with rough hairs. Flowers in compound spikes,
yellow. Calyx 5-toothed. Corolla 5-lobed, funnel-form. Stamens 5,
inserted in throat of corolla, which above them is closed by a crown of
hairs. Ovary 1-celled with 2 many-ovuled placentæ. Style cylindrical,
terminating in a bilobulate cone. Capsule globular, about the size
of a pea, black, coriaceous, thorny, bivalvate. Seeds numerous,
each encircled by a broad membranous wing.
Habitat.--In Calauang and other parts of Luzon and Panay.
_Thevetia nerifolia_, Suss. (_Cerbera Thevetia_, L. and Blanco)
Nom. Vulg.--_Campanelo_, Sp.-Fil.; _Exile or Yellow Oleander_, Eng.
Uses.--This shrub is very common in gardens, well known by its pretty
yellow, bell-shaped flowers. The trunk bark possesses antiperiodic
properties first described by Descourtilz and confirmed later by
Dr. G. Bidie and Dr. J. Short. Both the latter used the tincture
in 10-15-drop doses 3 times a day. This tincture was prepared by
macerating for one week in 150 grams of alcohol 30 grams of fresh bark
finely divided. This preparation operates as an emetic and purgative
in doses of 30-60 drops. It is evident that the plant possesses very
active, even poisonous properties and should be employed with great
caution. The decoction of the bark is given as an emetic and cathartic,
but very imprudently because there is no means of determining the
quantity of active principle, shown by chemical analysis to be a
dangerous product.
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