CALOTROPIS GIGANTEA (Linn.) Dryand. Asclepias gigantea Linn.

KAPAL-KAPAL

Local names: Kapal-kapal (Tag.); gigantic swallow-wort, mudar (Engl.). Kapal-kapal is cultivated about dwellings in Manila and other large towns in the Philippines. It was introduced from tropical Asia, and is now pantropic in cultivation. This is a medium-sized shrub, growing from 2 to 3 meters in height, the young parts being covered with appressed white hairs. The bark is pale. The leaves are obovate or oblong, 10 to 20 centimeters long, 3 to 8 centimeters wide, cottony beneath, pointed at the tip and heart-shaped at the base. The flowers have a faint odor (not at all unpleasant), are drown on the outside, and are arranged in axillary or subterminal, simple or compound, inflorescences. The corolla is 1.5 to 2.5 centimeters across and is usually white though sometimes dull-purple or purplish-lilac; the lobes are ovatelanceolate, and spreading. The fruit ( a follicle) is recurved, and 7.5 to 10 centimeters long. The seeds are ovate, 5 to 6 millimeters long, and furnished with a bright, silkywhite coma. Kapal-kapal is of very recent introduction in the Philippines. It is known here only for its flowers, which are often strung into rosaries. Medicinally, the plant is a closed book to the Filipinos. Kramer reports that the fiber from the inner bark was formerly used in the manufacture of cloth for the princes and nobles, and that the hairs of the seeds are said to have been made into thread in Borneo. He says that gun-powdercharcoal is made from the young branches. Tsiang records that the stems yield a strong fiber, durable under water, used for making fish nets, halters, lines, and ropes. The floss on the seeds is used for stuffing mattresses; the acrid, milky juice, mixed with salt, is used to remove hair from hides; the root is a good tooth cleanser, and the wood is utilized in making charcoal and gun-powder. Burkill states that in Java the Chinese candy the central part of the flowers to make a sweetmeat, just as they candy other latiferous plants, such as Euphorbia. According to Waddell, the active principle appears to be a yellow, bitter resin, besides which the root-bark contains two substances closely resembling the alban and fluvial found in gutta-percha. It contains no alkaloid. On the other hand, Wehmer records that the latex yields an amrphous, bitter principle, caltropin, which is identical to mundarin, isolated by Duncan [Phil. Mag. 10 (1833) 465]. Nadkarni says that the drug acts like digitalis on the heart. Webb states that the emetic action of the root-bark was recognized, and it was recommended as a substitute for ipecac in medicine. He adds that a proteinase was found in the latex, and a sterol termed calosterol. The potencies of calotropin, calotoxin, and uscharin are compared pharmacologically with ouabain.

The dried root-bark is pfficail in the Pharmacopoeias of India and Great britain (4). The bark is carefully dried, and powdered; in small doses, from 2 to 5 grains, it is used as an alternative and tonic; in larger ones (from 30 to 60 grains), for adults, it acts freely as an emetic, and because of this it is regarded by some as one of the best Indian substitute for ipecacuanha. Among the Hindus, an adult suffering from dysentery may be given a large dose, from 20 to 60 grains at once, in the same manner as ipecacuanha is administered. The root-bark is said to promote the secretions and to be useful in the skin diseases, enlargements of the abdominal viscera, intestinal worms, coughs, ascites, anasarca, etc. the root, pulverized and made into an ointment, is very efficacious in the treatment of old ulcers, so common on the western coast of India. The root-bark and inspissated juice are used in leprosy, constitutional syphilis, mercurial cachexia, syphilitic and idiopathic ulcerations, dysentery, diarrhea, and chronic rheumatism. The root-bark is useful in skin diseases, elephantiasis, and enlargement of the abdominal viscera, ascites, and anasarca. The leaves, warmed and moistened with oil, are applied as a dry fomentation for abdominal pains, and also make a good rubeficient. The leaves and stems, when bruised or incised, produce an acrid, milky juice which is used in India in native medicines as an external application for skin affections and as a depilatory. The fresh or dried juice of the bark from the roots, is also given Chevers, who states that forcing the juice down the throat is a common method of infanticide employed by castes, who have the custom of often putting their girl babies to death. Mudar juice is also given internally or applied locally to procure abortion. Like all other irritant vegetable juices it is used locally; usually a stick smeared with the juice is pushed up into the os uteri and left there until uterine contractions are induced. Chopra remarks, however, that recent investigations do not bear out the claims made on behalf of Calatropis gigantea. Excepting the local irritant action, it has no marked therapeutic properties. The milky juice is regarded as a drastic purgative, and a cautic, and is generally used as such in combination with the milky juice of Euphorbia neriifolia. The milky juice milky juice with common salt is given for toothache, and the juice of the young buds for earache. The milky juice is recommended for ringworm of the scalp, for trouble in the sinus, and for anal fistula; and as a cure for piles; mixed with honey it is used in aphthae of the mouth; and when inserted in a decayed tooth with a piece of cotton wool, it cures toothache. The flowers are considered digestive, stomachic, tonic, and useful in coughs, asthma, catarrh, and loss of appetite.