Closeup of Rangoon Creeper with its fragrant tri-color flowers.
Rangoon Creeper (Quisqualis Indica L.) is also known as Chinese Honeysuckle. Its common name in the vernacular is Niyog-niyogan or Tartaraok.
A member of the Combretaceae family, it is a ligneous vine that can reach from 2.5 meters to up to 8 meters. The leaves are elliptical with an acuminate tip and a rounded base. They grow from 7 to 15 centimeters and their arrangement is opposite. The flowers are fragrant and tubular and their color varies from white to pink to red. The 30 to 35 mm long fruit is ellipsoidal and has five prominent wings. The fruit tastes like almonds when mature. 
Rangoon Creeper is a rather common plant in Thailand. I took this picture in Koh Phangan.
Rangoon Creeper is found in thickets or secondary forests in Asia. It has since been cultivated and naturalized in other areas.
It is one of the 10 medicinal plants defined as a Philippine herbal plant that the Philippine Department of Health, through its “Traditional Health Program”, has endorsed. It has been tested and have been clinically proven to have medicinal value in the relief and treatment of various aliments.
Traditional uses include:
root, seed, fruit decoction – used as vermifuge, stop diarrhea
fruits and seeds – alleviate nephritis, used as bechic or pectoral, against ascaris
leaf juice – remedy for boils and ulcers
leaves – relieve ache caused by fever
roots – treat rheumatism
fruit decoction – gargle against toothache
Aside from its excellent medicinal properties, Rangoon Creeper is also a wonderful plant for landscaping particularly in trellises and fences. The dense foliage can serve as visual barriers and the flowers provide fragrance and color. 
In my design project in Guangzhou, China, an electrical meter mounted on the external wall is unbearable to look at from the interior. To solve this problem, my client and I bought a potted Rangoon Creeper tall enough to suit our purpose. Once fully established, the plant as we envision, will completely obscure the eyesore.
I first took notice of Rangoon Creeper at a friend's house in Bangkok. The trellise in front of his house, pictured here, has Rangoon Creeper over-flowing with flowers. It made a real impression on me and since then, it became one of my favorite flowering plants.
Tags: alleviate nephritis, Chinese Honeysuckle, Liane Vermifuge, medicinal plant, Niyog-niyogan, Philippine medicinal plants, Quisqualis Indica, Rangoon Creeper, remedy for boils and ulcers, Tartaraok, Traditional Health Program, treatment for rheumatism
Moringa is a beautiful fast-growing medium sized tree that is also a fierce power bloomer.
Moringa Oleifera locally known as Malunggay is considered one of the most beneficial trees in the world. From the foothills of the Himalayas to the shores of the Philippines, Moringa is actively cultivated as nutritional food. Dubbed as the “Miracle Plant,” nearly every part of the Moringa can be eaten for food and other beneficial properties. In fact, there is a huge global industry devoted to selling Moringa extracts via pills and liquid refreshments. Even the green pods are consumed and are said to taste like asparagus. You can also pick green seeds and treat them like garden peas. Or, dry pods are opened and the seeds toasted. The flowers are eaten cooked and taste like mushrooms. Since I got to know the wonderful properties of Malunggay, I use it in lieu of the more traditional chili leaves (“dahon ng sili”) in the Filipino dish, Tinolang Manok.
Moringa leaves are super nutritious. Claims include 7 times the vitamin C of oranges, 4 times the vitamin A of carrots, 4 times the calcium of milk and twice the protein, and 3 times the potassium of bananas Even the roots are eaten. Moringa roots taste like horseradish (root) hence it’s common name used in Florida, Horseradish Tree.
It is also known to be the best nutritional support for nursing mothers because it is not only rich in nutritional content but for its medicinal properties as well. By making vegetable soup out from fresh Moringa leaves, it has been found to increase the volume of breastmilk produced by lactating mothers. Another established medicinal property of Moringa Olfeira is its anti bacterial action. French scientists had found that Moringa contains an anti bacterial peptide (a molecule composed of two or more amino acids, the building blocks of proteins) that can destroy the cell membrane of many infectious bacteria.
Aside from its nutritional and health benefits of Moringa, through its seeds it has the full potential of producing biofuel, cooking oil, personal care products, cosmetics, aromatheraphy, perfume, industrial oil and lubricants. Its oil is comparable to sunflower and olive oil. It is much better than palm oil in terms of properties, for it has a low transfatty acids. Twelve kilograms of moringa seeds one liter of oil can be extracted and about eight and a half kilograms of cake among others as by products.
A nice shady tree for the streets of Metro Manila.
Moringa is a beautiful fast-growing medium sized tree that is also a power bloomer. Fragrant white flowers with yellow throats are seen most of the year in great masses. Moringa is tough and drought resistant. They are not only nice but most importantly beneficial trees. I wish they could be planted in the streets of Metro Manila instead of the plants and trees that we now have.
Fragrant white flowers with yellow throats are seen most of the year in great masses.
