Kamoteng Kahoy - Manihot Esculenta Crantz.

Kamoteng Kahoy – Manihot Esculenta Crantz.

Kamoteng Kahoy – Manihot Esculenta Crantz. / Jatropha manihot Linn.

Local names: Balangai (S. L. Bis.); kamote ti moro (Ilk., Ibn.); kamote-kahoi (Sul.); kamoteng-kahoi (Sbl., Bik., Bis., Tag.); malambonga (Tagb.); padpadi (Bon.); panggi-kahui (Sul.); cassava, tapioca plant, manioe (Engl.).

Kamoteng-kahoi is planted or semicultivated throughout the Philippines in settled areas. It was introduced from Mexico in the early colonial period, but is now pantropic in distribution.

This is an erect, smooth, half-woody or shrubby plant, 1.5 to 3 meters in height, growing from stout, fleshy roots. The leaves are alternate and smooth and (except from some of the upper leaves which are entire) divide to the base into three to seven narrow segments 10 to 20 centimeters long. The flowers are about 1 centimeter long. The fruit (capsule) is ovoid and about 1.5 centimeter long, with six narrow, longitudinal wings.

According to Brown cassava is cultivated for its swollen, fleshy starchy roots. There are two well-known kinds, the bitter and the sweet. The bitter is more robust and is planted for the production of starch. The roots of this kind contain hydrocyanic acid and are poisonous. The hydrocyanic acid, however, is dissipated by heat. The starch is extensively used for sizing, being exceptionally well adapted to this purpose. It is also the source of tapioca. Sweet cassava cannot compete with the bitter kind in the production of starch but is grown for use as a vegetable. It has a good taste and is not poisonous.

According to Burkill the roots can be used to feed pigs and also produce glucose and alcohol. The tender leaves are used as food among the Indians of Brazil, and the custom of eating them is now widespread Malaysia.

Dunstan, Henry, and Auld state that the poison of the manioc plant is hydrocyanic, or prussic acid. It occurs in the tissues, both free and in combination with glucoside. This glucoside is the very substance- phaseolunatin- which is found in various beans, rendering them poisonous. Associated with it is an enzyme capable of liberating the hydrocyanic acid from the glucoside. In nature, the process is held in check; but after the root is dug, as wilting occurs, the action is enabled to proceed, so that a stale root becomes poisonous though it was harmless when fresh.

Pekolt isolated from the leaves a glucoside, mandiocin.

Cousins found that the presence of most of the hydrocyanic acid in the cortical layers of the roots demonstrated how well the peeling of the tuber before cooking removes the chance of poisoning.

Burkill records that the tuber contains from 26 to 40 percent of starch and 1.5 to 2 percent of proteids.
The starch is official in the French (3); and Portuguese (3) Pharmacopoeias; and tapioca in the French (2-4); Mexican (1-4); Portuguese (3); Spanish (5,6); and United States (3-6) Pharmacopoeias.

According to Guerrero, a decoction of the bark of the trunk is considered antirheumatic.

Dalziel reports that in West Tropical Africa the powdered leaves are applied as a compress to the head in fevers and headaches. Caius states that in Cambodia the pounded tuber is applied to ulcerated wounds. It is considered antiseptic in Brazil and is used to preserve meat; as an ointment it is reputed useful in ulcers of the cornea. The juice is very poisonous. Incauiana it is boiled down to a syrup and given as an aperient. The fresh rhizome is made into a poultice and applied to ulcers. The fruit is used as a fish poison in California and Brazil.

Source: Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agriculture