MEDlCINAL PLANTS OF JAMAICA. PARTS 1 & 11.

The Mayas found the plant useful in treating asthma and sore tongue. The clarified fruit juice has been
used for jaundice, gonorrhoea and diarrhoea.
The leaves contain about 6% fat. 0.365% volatile oil containing eugenol. 8 to 15% tannin, 3.15% resin
and some malic acid. The bark has 12 to 30% tannin and the root is also rich in this substance. (9, 13, 15, 16,
27, 37, 38, 39, 56, 60, 61).
NYCTAGINACEAE
A small family of herbaceous and woody plants found mainly in America. Chemically they are little
known.
BOERHAVIA SCANDENS L. Rat Ears; Easy.to-Bruck.
This plant is used to make tea for colds and is also considered to be an excellent treatment for marasmus
("mirasmy") in children. In Africa and India various species of Boerhavia are considered useful as emetics,
cathartics, diuretics, febrifuges, vermifuges, expectorants; astringents used in the treatment of dysentery,
gonorrhoea and wounds; and as valuable in the treatment of asthma and dropsy. Boerhavia spp. are said to
contain the alkaloid punarnavine. (7, 10, 14, 27, 39, 57, 61).
MIRABILIS JALAPA L. Four o'clock: Marvel of Peru; False Jalap.
This species probably finds little use in Jamaican home remedies but is used in baths for fever and colds.
The root is said to have purgative properties: it contains carbohydrate and trigonellin. It was employed in earlier
times in Jamaica as a laxative and is said to be so used in Cuba. In Antigua and India the leaves are said to be
used as an application to ulcers and sores. The juice of the flowers is used in Cuba to treat freckles and
herpes while the root is thought anthelmintic and useful in cases of dysentery and melancholia. (1, 5, 7, 15, 19,
26, 27, 37, 47, 61).
OXALIDACEAE
A mostly herbaceous family of about three hundred and forty species, found mainly in the warmer
regions of the world. Oxalic acid is commonly found in the plants both as calcium oxalate crystals and also in
the form of dissolved potassium oxalate.
OXALIS CORNICULATA L. Sour Grass; (N) Edge-Teeth; (Yellow or Wood) Sorrel.
Oxalis spp. contain oxalic acid: they are commonly regarded as cooling. febrifuge. antiscorbutic and
stomachic. O. corniculata is used in Jamaica to make tea which is regarded as antidiuretic (though Lunan
reported it diuretic) and of value for the treatment of a "bad back". The species also finds use in Africa. Cuba.
India. It has been much used in dysentery cases. to remove films from the cornea and. it is said. as an antidote to
Datura poisoning. (5, 10, 14, 15, 26, 28, 39, 47, 48, 57, 61).
PALMAE
COCOS NUCIFERA L. Coconut Palm.
Coconut milk is often used in tea prepared from various "bush tea" plants. We find it so used with
Rytidophyllum (Search-my-Heart). Bidens reptans (Marigold). Eupatorium odoratum {]ack-in-the-Bush}. The
very small nuts which often fall from the treee are occasionally included in the popular Sarsaparilla tonics or the
root may be used instead. Coconut leaf is sometimes used with bryal wys (Smilax sp.) and sweet cup (Passinora
-malitormis) to prepare a tonic. The root is also included in a treatment for toothache (see Zanthoxyllum) and in
India and Ceylon it is considered to strengthen the gums. In India the pulp of young fruits is given in cases of
sunstroke: in Jamaica split young nuts boiled and with the addition of white rum are said to cure dysentery
while the water of very small immature nuts is used to treat gonorrhoea. In Fiji the coconut oil is used as an
application for rheumatism. stiffness of the joints. and strained muscles. To the husk and powdered woody shell
of the nut Descourtlz ascribed tonic and astringent properties and he considered the oil to be purgative and
vermifuge. Coconut water he described as antiscorbutic. (5, 7, 12, 14, 17, 36, 37, 38, 39, 50, 55, 56, 60, 61).