IPEL, A COFFEE SUBSTITUTE: LEUCAENA GLAUCA 

 (LINN^US) BENTHAMi 



By Harvey C. Brill 



{From the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, Bureau of Science, 



Manila, P. I.) 



The use of Leucaena glauca as a substitute for coffee has 

 recently been brought to our attention by the Philippine Bureau 

 of Education. The supervising teacher of Bauang, La Union 

 Province, reports that several of his teachers have used it in- 

 stead of coffee with pleasant results. 



Leucaena glauca (L.) Benth., known as ipel, or ipel-ipel, among 

 the Tagalogs, is widely distributed throughout the Philippine 

 Islands, although it is not native, having come originally from 

 tropical America. Merrill ^ says of this species : 



A native of tropical America, now widely distributed in tropical and 

 subtropical parts of the world; very abundant and widely distributed in 

 the Philippines at low altitudes, the timber being used for house posts and 

 for firewood. In Leyte the seeds are used by the natives as a substitute 

 for coffee. 



The Spanish name Santa Elena is in common use throughout 

 the Islands, while the following names are used in the localities 

 indicated: Agho (Iloilo Province, Panay) ; datels (Leyte) ; com- 

 compitis (Ilocos Sur) ; adjog (Negros) ; and ipel (Cavite, Pam- 

 panga, Rizal, Nueva Ecija) . The last name should not be 

 confused with "ipil," which is the name of one of our important 

 timber trees, Intsia bijuga 0. Kuntze. Leucaena glauca Benth. 

 has attained considerable prominence because of its value as 

 a reforestation crop. 



About 40 per cent of the total land area of the Philippine 

 Islands has become covered with grass to the exclusion of prac- 

 tically all other vegetation. Areas such as these are difficult to 

 reforest, and are not cultivated, owing to the frequency of fires 

 and the ease with which cogon — ^the dominant grass occupying 

 these tracts — crowds out the other vegetation. Cogon possesses 

 a dense mass of underground stems, which spreading throughout 



^ Received for publication November 23, 1915. 

 ' This Journal, Sec. C (1910), 5, 30. 



101 



