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The following is a useful study of the present state of our medical knowledge 
in regard to Eucalyptus leaves and Diabetes, by the late Dr. G. V. Perez, of Teneriffe, 
Canary Islands, who had been a close student of Eucalyptus for many years, and who 
died almost on the day of publication of his paper : 
A great sensation has been caused in these islands this year with the reported improvement and 
cure of a great many cases of diabetes, which is a frequent disease in this country, by means of a decoction 
of eucalyptus leaves (not infusion^. 
The exact history of what has taken place is as follows : 
The Revue Horticok of Algiers, having published in 1917, p. 151, that a Captain Laurent had adopted 
successfully the treatment of a number of diabetic cases with an infusion of the leaves of Euc. diversicolor 
( = E. colossea), the same was tried by a subscriber to that Revue, in Teneriffe, but at the very first the 
leaves of a tree of Euc. robusta were used (in decoction) with apparently very good results; all species of 
eucalyptus, probably through' the essential oil they contain, ap'pear to have the property to decrease the 
quantity of glucose in the urine of diabetic'patients. Soon after the first commencement of the treatment 
the leaves that have been used have been those of Euc. Siversicolor ( = E. colossea), although there is no 
evidence that these leaves have any advantage over those of the common Euc. globulus (blue gum); 
in fact, I think that the latter, being much richer in essential oil, ought to be the better, if there is any value 
in this treatment, and unless the long decoction of the leaves extracts from these some other constituents. 
The writer of these lines, on hearing the preceding sensational news, communicated at once with 
Dr. Trabut, who, besides being the editor of the Algiers Revue Horticole, is a well-known botanist, and a 
professor of that Medical School. He answered on the 5th of July that he knew nothing positive about it t 
besides what the Revue Horticok had published, but that he was much interested in what I told him. 
At the same time I wrote to Mr. J. H. Maiden, the well-known botanist of Sydney, and the greatest 
authority on eucalypts, who answered me as follows : 
" In reply to the postcript of your letter of 18th of July last, in the matter of eucalyptus leaves 
for diabetes, you will find an article in the Bulletin of the Department of Agriculture, Jamaica, entitled 
' Eucalyptus in the Treatment of Diabetes,' vol. 2, Part 2, p. 47, 1904 ; this is based on extracts from 
the British Medical Journal of 24th of May, 1902, and the Medical Annual of 1903. The reports would appear 
to have been based on experience with E. globulus in New Zealand (in which country no eucalypts are 
native). 
" Some years ago an opinion as to its value for diabetes was widely held in New South Wales, and 
it fell to my lot frequently to supply leaves to Sydney sufferers, but I never heard of a permanent cure 
attributed to this remedy, and I understand it is not now prescribed by regular practitioners. 
" The late Sir James Graham, who specialised in diabetes, and the late Sir Philip Sydney Jones, 
physicians of high standing, who both sent patients to me for material, told me that they could not say 
that valuable results accrued, although they gave it a good trial." 
The above quotation by Mr. Maiden refers no doubt to Mr. A. G. Faulds, of Glasgow, who said he 
knew of this treatment through Mr. James Dick, of New Zealand, and who published in the British Medical 
Journal for 1902, vol. 1, No. 2160, p. 1295, that he had treated forty-six cases of diabetes by an infusion 
of the leaves of eucalyptus, and that all recovered; this latter quotation figures in Martindale's 
Pharmacopoeia and others. It would be very interesting to know if since 1902 any more cases of the 
treatment of diabetes by eucalyptus leaves have been recorded, and with what results, as the above 
information is very contradictory. 
In Teneriffe, where diabetes, or, at least, glucosuria, is very frequent, the fact remains that many 
cases have experienced great relief with this drug, and that there arc reports of cures. I heard in May 
from a good source that there were over 400 cases taking the decoction of eucalyptus leaves, arid I also 
know for a fact that analysis of the urine of such patients, frequently made, }ias shown a very marked 
diminution in the quantity of glucose excreted. 
I have it also from quite a trustworthy witness that in several cases where sexual impotence was a 
marked symptom of diabetes, the sexual powers in the male have been restored, and this symptom appears to 
me to be a very remarkable one. LasOgue, the well-known Paris physician of the middle of the last'century, 
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