Tlahui-Medic. No. 7, I/1999


Dr. Mario Rojas Alba
Founding president of the Mexican Institute for Traditional Medicine Tlahuilli A.C.

Translation by Natasha Bonilla

 
Common name: Boldo
Additional English common names: Boldus, boldea, boldoa
Spanish common name: Boldo
Additional common names
South America: Añas Keru, Nulisa-t'ujsara, Wilun, Wiluna, Pillurina
Scientific name: Peumus boldus
Family: Monimiaceae

Botanical characteristics and habitat: Peumus boldus Molina or Boldoa fragans Juss. is found in the dry and sunny valleys of Chile. It is cultivated in different countries throughout Latin America and it may also be easily found in the popular medicinal plant markets. Boldo is an evergreen shrub or tree 20 feet high (6 meters); its leaves are 2 inches long (6 centimeters), petiolated, leathery and ovate.

Properties: Cholagogue, stimulant, tonic, aperitive, digestive, febrifuge, and diuretic.

Uses in traditional medicine: Boldo improves the appetite. It is a cholagogue, a stimulant, a stomach tonic, a digestive, and a febrifuge. The plant is used for liver and bladder ailments. It is also used to treat bruises (purple, violaceous coloration) that may appear on the face due to vascular dilatation. Boldo is also a diuretic. It has a stimulant effect on bile and gastric secretion. The plant promotes the elimination of uric acid, and it may also eliminate gallstones. Boldo is a tonic for the nervous system. The indigenous people of the Andes have used it since ancient times as a stomachic and carminative. Boldo is an excellent blood pellant. It treats kidney and liver ailments, as well as syphilis. When boiled in water, the leaves are used as a poultice for treating migraines and other headaches. The plant is used in bath water to treat hydrops and rheumatism. In South America boldo leaves are frequently mixed with mate (Ilex paraguayensis.)

Remedies:

  • Make an infusion with one pinch of leaves and a cup of water. Take after meals as a preventive and curative of hepatic failure.
  • Make a tisane to tranquilize people who suffer from excess fatigue and to aid digestion.
  • Make an infusion of 25 grams of leaves with 250 ml of water to aid liver congestion and hepatic colic. Take this infusion daily in three equal portions.

Constituents: Its bark contains different alkaloids of aporphinic nucleus such as boldine. This is an active ingredient used in the treatment of some liver ailments. The leaves and bark contain volatile oil, ascaridole, eucalyptol and p-cymol, as well as alkaloids such as boldine and flavonoids and derivatives. Boldine stimulates the digestive function, and it has an effect on hepatic cells by increasing bile secretion. As a result of its cholagogic function, it allows for urea elimination. It also contains a glucoside, boldoglucin, which stimulates bile function and sleep (by general anesthesia.) Volatile oil and flavonic derivatives have a diuretic action. Its pharmacological name is Folia Boldo (boldo leaves.)

Precautions & contraindications: It is not used in high doses anymore because it may cause a hypnotic effect and chromatic and auditory hallucinations. It may cause dizziness with some vomiting, and it may be a mild laxative as well. Consult your doctor.



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