with meat, were sufficient to kill a dog in a few minutes. In the 
Llanos of eastern Colombia, peasants are said to crush the 
leaves and apply them as a cure for gangrenous ulcers. An 
infusion of the leaves is likewise taken for ‘‘heart disease.’’ The 
Saliva Indians of the Colombian Llanos are reported to prepare a 
very active poison from the leaves. 
Steroid alkaloids have been isolated from an African species 
of Malouetia (Gibbs, loc. cit. (1974) 346), but chemical studies on 
South American species appear not to have been carried out on 
any systematic basis. 
RUBIACEAE 
Calycophyllum Spruceanum (Benth.) Hooker filius ex K. 
Schumann in Martius, Fl. Bras. 6, Pt. 6 (1889) 191. 
PERU: Departamento de Loreto, Rio Amazonas, Iquitos. ‘‘Capirona. Tree 20 
m. Decoction of the bark is used for sarna negra (an arachnid that lives under 
the skin.) Dry pulverized bark applied for fungus infections.’’ June 26, 1966. 
R. T. Martin et C. A. Lau-Cam 1346. 
Chemical studies of this conspicuous tree of the Amazon have 
apparently never been conducted. Its characteristic bark is 
widely used for a variety of medicinal purposes in the upper 
Amazon region. In Peru, a decoction of the bark is used against 
‘*sarna negra’’, an arachnid that lives under the skin; the dried, 
powdered bark is also applied for fungus infections. 
The interesting folk uses of the bark of this conspicuous tree 
strongly suggest the need for phytochemical and pharmacologi- 
cal studies. Nothing apparently is known of the chemical con- 
stituents. Its characteristic bark has a variety of other less 
specific medicinal uses in the indigenous populations of the 
upper Amazon. 
Isertia hypoleuca Bentham in Hooker, Journ. Bot. 3 (1841) 220. 
COLOMBIA: Comisaria del Amazonas, Rjo Amazonas, Leticia. Altitude about 
100 m. ‘‘Flowers scarlet within, fringes yellow. Leaf pale beneath.”’ Sep- 
tember, 1946. R. E. Schultes 8207. 
The non-indigenous population in Leticia administers a tea 
made from the leaves of Jsertia hypoleuca and the crushed seeds 
of the papaya(Carica Papaya L.) in cases of menstrual irregular- 
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