Manunggal
Samadera indica · Niepa bark tree
- Names in the book
- Manungal, Tag., Pam., Bicol.; Manunagl, Linatoganak, Palagarium, Daraput, Vis.
- Used for
- FeverDiarrhea and dysenteryStomach and digestionConstipationJoint pain, sprains and swelling
- Colours
- floweryellow, pink
- Native range
- East African islands and Madagascar, and tropical Asia to Palau
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Very common and well known everywhere in the Philippines. Blooms in February.
- Family
- Simaroubaceae, filed in the book under Simarubaceæ
- Printed as
- Samadera Indica, Gaertn. (Niota tetrapela, DC. & Blanco; Manungala pendula, Blanco.)
- Sources
- Page 71 on Project Gutenberg
The plant today
The native range of this species is Tanzania (Pemba), Comoros, Madagascar, Tropical Asia to Caroline Islands (Palau). It is a tree and grows primarily in the wet tropical biome.
From Plants of the World Online, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, CC BY 3.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 40 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 1 province: Isabela (7).
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 wood and seeds contain an intensely bitter principle. The Filipinos make cups and vases of the wood and allow water to stand in them 6–12 hours, thus preparing a solution of the bitter principle of the plant which they use in various stomach disorders.
Vrij has extracted from the seeds a 33% oil of a bright yellow color, composed, according to Oudermans, of 84 parts olein to 16 of palmitin and stearin.
The bitter principle contained in the root, wood and bark was discovered by Blunse who named it samaderin; it is a white, crystalline, foliaceous substance, more soluble in water than in alcohol, fusible. Nitric and hydrochloric acids color it yellow. Sulphuric acid immediately forms a violet red color which disappears as iridescent, feathery crystals are precipitated. (D. Beaumentz et Egasse.)
The Filipino “herb-doctors” concoct an oil of manungal that in reality contains none of the ingredients of the seeds; it is simply cocoanut oil in which chips of the wood have been soaked. They use it in doses of 30–60 grams as a purgative, externally as an application to the abdomen in colic or indigestion and with friction in rheumatism or contusions. In India the oil extracted from the seeds is used locally with friction in rheumatism.
The decoction of the wood and the powdered wood are given in fevers, in dyspepsia and as a general tonic.
[table omitted; see the source text]
A wineglassful several times a day in cholera, fevers, diarrhœa, etc.
Botanical description
A small tree, trunk straight, the wood white and very light in weight. Leaves 4–5′ long, alternate, acute, oval, entire, glabrous, coriaceous, veined. Petioles very short, no stipules. Flowers in terminal umbels, each composed of 4–6 flowerets with moderately long pedicels. Common peduncle, very slender, very long, drooping. Calyx of same color as corolla, inferior, very small, 4-lobuled. Corolla purplish, very long, 4 straight, linear petals. Stamens 8, inserted on the receptacle. Filaments of equal length with the petals, with 1–2 appendices at the base. Anthers spiral. Ovary 5-lobuled, borne on small stalk. One style of equal length with the stamens, situated above the center of the 5 lobules of the ovary which develop into 5 future pods. Stigma simple. Fruit 5 woody pods, short, united centrally above a small base, semi-lunar in form, medianly expanded, venate, containing a small wrinkled, kidney-shaped seed attached by a seed-stalk to the superior suture.
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.
All 1 results on Europe PMC