Sibuyas
Allium cepa · Onion
- Names in the book
- Cebolla, Sp.; Lasuna, Sibuyas, Tag.; Onion, Eng.
- Used for
- FeverCough and asthmaStomach and digestionJoint pain, sprains and swellingUrinaryBites and stings
- Colours
- flowerwhitebulbred, yellow, white
- Native range
- Central Asia; known only from cultivation
- Family
- Amaryllidaceae, filed in the book under Liliaceæ
- Printed as
- Allium Cepa, L.
- Sources
- Page 233 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
The onion (Allium cepa L.Tooltip Carl Linnaeus, from Latin cepa), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion which was classified as a separate species until 2011. The onion's close relatives include garlic, scallion, leek, and chives. cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion Allium fistulosum, the tree onion Allium × proliferum, and the Canada onion Allium canadense. The name wild onion is applied to a number of Allium species, but A. cepa is exclusively known from cultivation.
Excerpt from “Onion” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Sa Tagalog
Ang sibuyas (Ingles: onion, Kastila: cebolla) o lasuna (mula sa Sanskrito: लशुन [laśuna]) ay isang uri ng halamang gulay na ginagamit sa pagluluto. Nakakasanhi ng luha ang bunga nito kapag hinihiwa kung hindi nahugasan. Tinatawag na sibuyas ang anumang maraming mga halamang nasa saring Allium.
Sipi mula sa “Sibuyas” sa Tagalog Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 59 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 8 provinces: Zamboanga del Norte (14), Benguet (2), Guimaras (2), Aurora (2), Bataan (1), Batanes (1), Agusan del Sur (1), Maguindanao (1).
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
The book gives one account for this plant and Bawang (Allium sativum), so the text below appears on each page.
Uses
The garlic and the onion are used to excess as condiments in Philippine as well as Spanish cooking. Both are difficult of digestion and communicate a very disagreeable odor to the breath, intolerable to those who are unaccustomed to it. Garlic possesses the singular property, familiar to many students and soldiers, of inducing a transient fever if introduced within the anus. When bruised and applied to the skin it has a counter-irritant action which makes it useful in the treatment of rheumatism, but the odor is so disagreeable that it is not worth while to use it for that purpose when we have so many other medicines which produce the same effect without being objectionable. It is also used locally for the bites of venomous animals.
The onion is used cooked as a poultice over the bladder and internally for various catarrhs. It is better to abstain from the therapeutic and culinary use of products so indigestible and so malodorous.
Botanical description
These plants are so well known in all parts of the world that a description of them would be superfluous.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Onion (Allium cepa L.) peels: A review on bioactive compounds and biomedical activities
- Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles from Allium cepa L. Peel Extract, Their Antioxidant, Antipathogenic, and Anticholinesterase Activity
- Allium cepa: A Treasure of Bioactive Phytochemicals with Prospective Health Benefits