92 THE MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES 



Botanical Description. — A large tree, 20° high, thorny, 

 with ternate leaves. Leaflets rhomboid, broad, entire, glabrous. 

 Secondary petioles : that of the middle leaflet long, bearing 2 

 glands, those of the others short, bearing 1 gland each. The 

 leaves fall at the end of the rainy season and the flowers bloom. 

 They are a handsome scarlet color, large, in terminal racemes. 

 Calyx half-cylindrical, oblique, truncate, entire. Corolla 

 papilionaceous ; standard elongated, lanceolate. Wings short. 

 Keel very short, 2-lobuled. Stamens diadelphous. Anthers 

 large. Ovary woolly. Stigma thick. Pod curved, rounded, 

 furrowed in parts corresponding to the seeds which are numer- 

 ous, oval, pointed at the ends. 



Habitat. — Common throughout the islands. Blooms in 

 February. 



Clitoria ternatea, L. 



Nom. Vulg. — Kolokantig, Pukingag,Tag. ; Kolokatig, Vis.; 

 Butterfly-pea, Eng. 



Uses. — The pounded seeds mixed with oil are used locally 

 for painful joints. They possess purgative and emetic proper- 

 ties and Dr. J. Shartt has employed a mixture of the powdered 

 roasted seeds, 8 grams, with double the quantity of acid tar- 

 trate of potassium. Its action is gentle, but sure. The alco- 

 holic extract of the root, a soft, brown, resinous substance with 

 an odor recalling that of jalap, is a very active cathartic, pro- 

 ducing sharp effects in doses of 30-60 centigrams ; in fact it 

 produces such severe tenesmus that its use in such doses should 

 not be recommended. 



The root bark is used internally in an infusion (4-8 grams to 

 1 liter of water) as an emollient in irritability of the bladder 

 and urethra and has been recommended for such a purpose by 

 Mooden Sheriff. It is a diuretic which frequently acts as a 

 purgative, a fact that is not surprising in view of the above- 

 mentioned properties of the alcoholic extract. 



