1009 
for chronic diarrhea and dysentery. I should class it as the most widely 
known and most important Filipino drug. If a native knows of but 
one kind of medicinal plant, that one is invariably “dita.” In India, 
the tree is also well known as an astringent tonic, anthelmintic, alterative, 
and antiperiodic. “It is a valuable remedy in chronic diarrhcea and 
dysentery.” * In the Philippines, dita is considered to be a febrifuge 
of great importance. As a tonic it is said to give as good results as 
quinine, Its action has been compared to quinine, and, in fact, I was 
assured by white physicians that the bark contained quinine, which 
statement is of course erroneous. The native method of preparing the 
bark for medicinal uses is as follows: 
About 15 grams of the powdered bark (one handful) is boiled with about 400 
cubic centimeters of water until half the water has boiled away. The solution is 
then strained and made up to the original volume. The dose of this decoction is 
30 to 60 cubic centimeters three or four times a day. This dose is equivalent to 
about 2 to 4 milligrams of echitamine. Tavera * recommends a wine prepared by 
macerating one bottle of muscadel or sherry with 25 grams of the bark. Dose 
one-half wineglass before meals. A tincture of the bark has also been prepared,® 
for which the dose calculated to the bark is very much smaller. As the active 
constitutents of the plant are exceedingly soluble in water, the lessening of the 
dose in the tincture is material. 
There seems to be a very widespread opinion, even among educated 
physicians, that the dita bark extract is an excellent tonic during con- 
valescence from exhausting diseases. 
PREVIOUS LITERATURE ON THE ALKALOIDS FROM DITA BARK. 
The fame of dita as a healing agent dates from great antiquity 
(Rheeder [1678] and Rhumpius [1741]), but in more modern times 
attention was again called to the bark by Gruppe, a pharmacist in 
Manila, who in 1883 prepared from it a bitter substance which he called 
“ditain.” Gruppe used the same process to obtain this substance as 
that employed in the preparation of quinine, and he thus obtained from 
100 parts of bark, 2 parts of his ditain in addition to 10 parts of inactive 
substances and 0.85 parts of gypsum. his ditain, according to Dr. 
Pina, then chief physician of the Province of Manila, possessed the 
antipyretic properties of the bark to a high degree. A report * at that 
time stated : 
The results arrived at in the Manila hospitals and in private practice are 
described as simply marvelous; if further adds “that in military hospitals and 
in penitentiary practice (Manila) ditain has perfectly superseded quinine, and 
is now being employed with most satisfactory results in the Island of Mindanao, 
where the malignant fevers are prevalent.” 
* Watts: Dict. Econ. Plants of India (1885), 1, 198. 
*Tbid. (1901), 164. 
* National Standard Dispensatory (Hare) (1905), 139. 
* Watts: Dict. Econ. Plants of India (1885), 1, 199. 
