Philippine Medicinal Plants

English: Tamarind
Tagalog: Sampalok

Sampalok is a fruit tree found throughout the Philippines, and is common on Mt. Banahaw. Sampalok fruit is used as a laxative, for bilious vomiting, and against cholera. It is also a refrigerant, and used to reduce fevers. The bark is astringent and tonic, and used for asthma and amenorrhoea. The leaves are used to destroy worms in children, and are useful for jaundice.

English: Aloe vera
Tagalog: Sabila

Aloe, genus of succulent plants with more than 150 species, most native to southern Africa. They usually have short stems, fleshy, tapering leaves crowded in rosettes at the end of the stem, and red or yellow tubular flowers in dense clusters. Species vary in height from several centimetres to more than 9 m (30 ft); they are widely cultivated as garden and tub plants in warmer regions. Several species are commercially important as the source of the bitter-tasting aloes used in medicine.

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English: Rosemary
Tagalog: Romero

Romero is cultivated in some places in the Philippines, and is grown on Mt. Banahaw. Romero is reported to fight bacteria, relax the stomach, stimulate circulation and digestion, act as an astringent and decongestant, and improve circulation to the brain. It is reported to help prevent liver toxicity, and have anticancer and antitumor properties.

English: Cabbage
Tagalog: Repolyo

A biennial herb. The main axis, short and thick. Leaves are densely packed, and as it grows, close and develop into a gigantic bud of head. Leaves vary in color, from the common light yellowish green to dark green and dark red.

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English: Luffa
Tagalog: Patola

Loofah or Luffa, common name for a climbing plant of the cucumber family and for the vegetable sponge derived from the plant. There are six species of loofah plant, all of which are native to the Tropics and subtropics of Asia and Africa. The common name loofah and the scientific name Luffa are derived from the Arabic common name for this plant, lûfa. The most commonly used species, Luffa aegyptiaca, is an annual, monoecious vine (where male and female flowers appear on different parts of the plant), with deep yellow flowers. The female flowers are borne singly and the male flowers are in clusters.

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English: Pineapple
Tagalog: Pinya

Erect stem, 0.5 to 1.5 meters high. Leaves are numerous, linear-lanceolate, 1 to 1.5 meters long, 5-7 cm wide, the margins sharply spiny-toothed, green and shiny on the upper surface, pale on the lower surface. Heads are terminal, solitary, ovoid, 6 to 8 mm long. Sepals are ovate, thick and fleshy, about 1 cm long. Petals are three, oblanceolate, about 2 cm long, white below, violet above. The fruit is 20 cm or longer.

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