Siling labuyo
Capsicum frutescens · Bird's eye chili
- Names in the book
- Chili picante, Sp.-Fil.; Sili, Tag.; Capsicum, Red Pepper, etc., Eng.
- Colours
- flowergreenish-whitefruitred
- Native range
- Tropical Americas
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Universally common in the islands. Blooms at all times.
- Family
- Solanaceae, filed in the book under Solanaceæ
- Printed as
- Capsicum fastigiatum, Bl. (C. minimum, Roxb.)
- Sources
- Page 177 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Capsicum frutescens is a wild chili pepper that has genetic proximity to the cultivated pepper Capsicum chinense. It is native to Central and South America as well as Mexico. Pepper cultivars of C. frutescens can be annual or short-lived perennial plants.
Excerpt from “Capsicum frutescens” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 312 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 29 provinces, most often Oriental Mindoro (10), Laguna (9), Pampanga (8), Zamboanga del Norte (7), Benguet (5), Davao del Sur (5), Ifugao (4), Rizal (4), and 21 more.
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.
Uses
The fruit of this species of pepper plant is called agí in Cuba and Porto Rico; it is in common use as a condiment in the Philippines. As a tonic and stimulant it is a useful article of food in hot countries where the digestive functions become sluggish. Used in moderation it prevents dyspepsia and consequent diarrhœa. It is used as a gargle for hoarseness, decreasing the congestion of the larynx and vocal cords.
Gargle.—
[table omitted; see the source text]
Mix.
Recently capsicum in powder, extract, or tincture, has been recommended internally in the treatment of incipient hemorrhoids. The dose is .50 to 3 grams of the powder in pills or capsules; watery extract, 0.30–0.60; tincture, 10–30 drops.
The C. annuum, L., and other varieties of red pepper serve the same uses as the above.
Botanical description
Stem 4-angled. Leaves opposite, ovate-lanceolate, entire. Petioles short. Flowers greenish-white in little clusters, drooping. Corolla wheel-shaped. Fruit straight, conical, slender, scarcely 1′ long.
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.
- Dynamic analysis of flavor properties and microbial communities in Chinese pickled chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.): A typical industrial-scale natural fermentation process
- Characterization of key aroma-active compounds in fermented chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens L.) using instrumental and sensory techniques
- De novo transcriptome sequencing of Capsicum frutescens. L and comprehensive analysis of salt stress alleviating mechanism by Bacillus atrophaeus WU-9