POISONS FROM JUNGLE PLANTS 149 



held by Kelantan Malays to be exceedingly poisonous. 

 The ihul tree is not common in Kelantan, but it occui-s 

 in the Ulu KSsial district on the high ground of Bukit 

 Gadong; it is more common in the forests of 

 Malacca and in Java, but is also found in Singapore, 

 Pahang, and the Bindings. The botany has been 

 described by Hooker : " Trunk 40 feet, crown densely 

 leafy, subheroispberic. Leaves 12 — 15 feet, subovate 

 in outline, leaflets 2| — 3 feet by 2 inches, wliite and 

 scurfy beneath, petiole 5 feet, spathes and spadix 

 scurfy. Bpadix paniculately branched, nodding, 

 branches slender ; flowers white. Fruit IJ— 1 J inches 

 in diameter, smooth, gi-een. Seed globose " (Ref, IB). 

 The ihul palm is also described botanically by Ridley, 

 who says it woods to about 1,000 feet elevation (Ref. 20)* 



The ibul fruit when fresh is about the size of a 

 walnut; it is a hard green round and, except for a 

 fibrous epicarp like the areca nut, solid nut. The thin 

 whitish brittle shell of the dry nut encloses a very hard 

 yellowish-wliite oily kernel which is very nch in fats. 

 In Kelantan it is said that a single fruit is sufficient to 

 kill an elephant ; the poisonous nature of the fruit is 

 said to be known to the jungle-folk of Selangor. The 

 heart is also alleged to be poisonous, but Sir Hugh 

 Clifibrd refers to the shoots as being edible when 

 describing the manner in which some fugitives from 

 justice cleared their way through the depths of a dense 

 Malayan jungle : '* Their line of march was marked by 

 hayas and ibul, and other vdld palms, w^hich had been 

 felled, that men might fill their empty stomachs vnth 

 the edible shoots " (Ref. 5). 



In August, 1919, a Kelantan Malay was charged vnth 

 putting poison into a well. He was seen to throw 

 wadding into a private well in Kota Bharu- The 

 exhibit was of such small amount that it was hardly 



