Ethnobotanicals in Palawan, Philippines

[kadakuda]

I have been there before with the wife, and enjoyed it, but stayed around the capitol mostly adn took a day to go motor about the coutnryside. this chiense new year we are goingto most likely be back there and this time want to jsut motorbike our way around as much road as we can.

Anyone else been there or studied the region for plants?

A working list of plants i am hoping to find and at least get pics of, finding seeds would of course be a treat.

Acanthocereus pentagonus (i collect teh genus, and its grown there apparently)

Annona marcgravii (fruit)

Artabotrys uncinatus (fruit)

Erythroxylum cuneatum (anyone know much about the potential of its species?)

Erythroxylum novogranatense (mentions being used as hedge plant in Luzon, anyone confirm this? source: hxxp://www.philippineplants.org/Families/Erythroxylaceae.html)

Mangifera altissima (fruit)

Myristica sp.

Spondias sp. (fruit)

Will also be looking out for various things, but not paying too much special attention to finding htem

Tabernaemontana sp.

Voacanga sp.

________________________

some stuff i just started looking at in case others are interested.

Mambog

MITRAGYNA SPECIOSA Korth.

Nauclea speciosa Miq.

Stephegyne speciosa Korth.

Local names: Lugub (mand.); mambog (Tag.); palapupot (Ibn.).

Mambog is found in forests at low altitudes in Cagayan Province in Luzon; and in Mindoro and Mindanao. It also occurs in Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, and New Guinea.

This forest tree grows from 10 to 25 meters in height. The leaves are elliptic, 8.5 to 14 centimeters long, 5 to 10 centimeters wide (smaller at the ends of branchlets) pointed at the tip, rounded or somewhat heart-shaped at the base, and hairy on the nerves beneath. The petioles are 2 to 4 centimeters long. The flowers are crowded in round, terminal inflorescences (heads) 3 to 5 centimeters long. The calyx-tube is short and cup-shaped, with rounded lobes. The corolla-tube is 5 millimeters long, smooth without, and hairy within; the lobes are 3 millimeters long, smooth, and revolute in the margins. The fruit is oblong-ovoid and 5 to 7 millimeters long, with 10 ridges.

Field isolated from the leaves an alkaloid, which she named mitragynine (C22H31O5N). She quotes Dr. Laidlaw, who states that mitragynine is used in Perak as a local anaesthetic. This alkaloid distilled in vacuo unchanged at 2300 to 2400 C. Burkill say that it is not absolutely proved, but it may be assumed that this is the active substance; for the addict takes it into his system whether he inhales the smoke or drinks a decoction.

According to Burkill the leaves are chewed, or a preparation is made from in different ways, or they are smoked as one smokes opium in Malaya. Opium-smokers substitute them for opium when the latter is not procurable. As a drug the leaves are swallowed either in a cup of cold water or infused with hot water and drunk as if tea. The syrup may be smoked, somewhat in the manner of opium, in a pipe. Burkill an Haniff say that in Perak, the pounded leaves are applied to wounds, and whole, heated leaves over enlarged spleens. Burkill quotes Wray, who records the use of a poultice of the leaves for expulsion of worms from children, the poultice being carefully applied to the upper part of the abdomen.

 

http://www.kent.ac.u...awan_screen.pdf

The endangered plants of Palawan Island, Philippines (cant find full article)

http://journals.uplb...icle/view/258/0

Flora of the Philippines (only some families up)

http://www.philippin...t%20Proper.html

so far the most useful sight i have found for certain famiilies

http://www.philippin.../Rubiaceae.html

Edited December 16, 2012 by kadakuda

[planthelper]

Erythroxylum novogranatense (mentions being used as hedge plant in Luzon

 

"i never have problems, finding staff, to clip my hedges" for a reasonable rate...

[mauve]

Aren't there some novo left in Taiwan ? The japanese were the biggest cocaine producer in history and they cultivated E.novo in two places: Okinawa and (mainly) Taiwan...There must still be an old escaped tree somewhere in a mountain !

Mitragyna is present in the Philippines ? Interesting info ! It is a little bit surprising because i noticed how fragile the leaves are when the typhoons come. I guess that our Mytragina and mine are the most northerly of it's native range !

[kadakuda]

well, this is news to me. the gov here must have done a decent job hiding it as no one i have asked has a clue.

Mitragyna is not native to the country you are in nor the one i am. if you look at a map of SE Asia, its in the southern right hand big island (Mindanao?). now looking at the range of speciosa which is southern Myanmar/thailand down through Malaysia, then into the Indonesian mess of islands and Borneo and east a bit in PNG and the area. when you look at the Philippines its REALLY looks like, to me at least, for kratom to get to Mindanao (right name?) it would make sense to hope through Palawan as its really close to Borneo, and seems to be known for its closer relation to Bornean flora than that of the rest of the Philippines.

So I am hoping that it really is on palawan, i personally would expect it to be there given kratoms distribution, but i dont really have a clue. i struck out the first time i was there, but this time will be nicer as we are comfortable there now, have much more time and can just rent bikes and store our stuff in a cheap hotel.

We, meaning not my wife, are thinking of also skipping over to Davao if the weather is too crappy for boating in western palawan, adn if that happens, i am really hoping to find some.

Well, we all know kratom, any other gems anyone might think of?

i have all kind sof info on plants there now, but when i get into travel/plant mode i dont sleep and am so completely unorganized and messy its embarassing, so i will post useful stuff once i can sort it out a bit.

I have never heard of its use there, but anyone know if kava is present in the area?

[mauve]

Mitragyna is not native to the country you are in nor the one i am.

 

That's why i said "our gardens" not our countries ;)

[mauve]

" By 1920, Japan itself produced more than 2,000 kgs of cocaine, which then doubled to 4,000 by 1922. Although officials figures for the 1930s shrunk to just under 1,000 kgs, these are considered by historians as doctored for international consumption. Exports across Asia officially dropped to negligible levels, though complaints registered about Japanese firms and reporting, as well as cases of deliberate smuggling (such as the "Fujitsuru" and "Taiwan Governor" brand vials in India). Other specialists have noted growing diplomatic cooperation between Japan and international drug officials, at least until the invasions of Manchuria and China, when opiates became a major issue. The firms making cocaine and morphine were among Japan's largest: Hoshi, Sankyo, Koto and Shiongo Pharmaceuticals, and enjoyed growing links to major trading trusts (such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi) and to interlocking governmental, colonial and military officials.

In 1934, the Japanese authorities had 694 acres in Taiwan's Kagi (Chia-yi) district under intensive coca cultivation (by Taiwan Shoyaku and Hoshi). As a result, about 300,000 pounds of Formosan coca leaf were being harvested annually by the late 1930s, and Peruvian imports could be officially discontinued in 1938.

During World War II the whole pharmaceutical industry, self-sufficient in imperial Japan, came under war-government jurisdiction. In that sense, if cocaine was indeed marketed for non-medical purposes across occupied Asia--and the evidence mainly concerns opiates--the state bore responsibility. In any case, Taiwanese coca was demolished by war and the entire pharmaceutical industry reorganized (without cocaine) under the U.S. Occupation of Japan in 1945 (its previous practices an explicit charge of U.S. tribunals). A two-decade autonomous coca sphere abruptly ended."

From here: http://www.takaoclub.com/opium/japanrule2.htm

[kadakuda]

cheers for the link, time to go hit a library and ask the wife to help with some chinese books. that sounds so interesting.

site worked using tor, but now back on windows and normal internet i cant load it. just me?