54 THE MEDICINAL PLANTS OF THE PHILIPPINES 



Helicteres Ixora, L. {H. chrysooalyx, Miq.; H. Boxburghii, 



G. Don.) 



NoM. VuLG. — (?); Indian Screw Tree, Eng. 



Uses. — I am ignorant of the use that the Filipinos make of 

 this plant, though it is very possible that they do not employ it 

 at all in medicine, which is usually the case with those plants 

 to which they have given no name. In India the peculiar 

 spiral form of the fruit has suggested its application, according 

 to the theories of the doctrine of symbolism. Ainslie says that 

 the Hindoos use it to treat diseases of the external auditory 

 canal. On account of its emollient properties and probably on 

 account of its twisted form, it is used internally as a decoction, 

 in flatulence and the intestinal colic of children. It is indis- 

 pensable in the marriage ceremonies of the caste of Vaisya, 

 among whom it is customary for the groom to wear on his 

 wrists in the form of bracelets, strings of this fruit combined 

 with that of JRandia dumetorum. 



The root yields a juice which is employed in skin diseases, 

 in abscess, and in cardialgia. In Jamaica the juice of the 

 leaves is sometimes used for constipation. 



Botanical Description. — A small tree with leaves alter- 

 nate, simple, entire, irregularly nerved or veined at the base, 

 petiolate. Flowers of a handsome red color, hermaphrodite, 

 regular, axillary. Calyx gamosepalous, tubular, of 5 parts. 

 Corolla, 5 free petals slightly dentate at the point. Stamens 

 numerous, united on a free column on the cusp. Compound 

 nectary of 5 unilocular, many-ovuled ovaries. Styles 5, joined 

 at the base. Fruit of 5 carpels, thin, twisted on themselves in 

 spirals, forming a cone, pubescent, of a greenish-brown color, 

 each containing a single row of angular seeds. 



Habitat. — Luzon, Panay. 



