Ibaan, a 4th class municipality in the province of Batangas, Philippines, lies 110 kilometers south of Manila, bordered in the north by San Jose and Lipa City; east by Rosario and Taysan; south by Batangas City; and west by Batangas City and San Jose, Philippines. Land area: 98.95 square kilometers. Altitude: 300 feet above sea level. According to 2000 census, it has a population of 40,165 people in 7,825 households.

It is predominantly a Roman Catholic community, with minor percentage of Protestants and members of the Iglesia ni Cristo. Tagalog is the local dialect, however English is included in its educational curriculum and is often used in official dealings and transactions.

Temperature is moderate both in its rainy and dry seasons, conducive to farming, agricultural and livestock production which are the usual occupations of the people. There are less and less farmers each year because locals resort to hog raising for better income. Other sources of income are business and profession. (SOURCE)

Iba Tree

Local names: Bagbagutut (Ilk.); bangkiling (Bis., Tag.); iba (Tag., Pamp.); kagindi (Bis.); karamai (Ilk.); karmai (Ilk., Tag.); layoan (Bik.); poras (Bis.).

Iba is planted in most or all parts of the Philippines for its acid, edible fruit, but nowhere abundant. It is of prehistoric introduction. It occurs also in India to Malaya and Polynesia in common cultivation. It was introduced in tropical America.

This is a small, smooth, deciduous tree 4 to 9 meters in height. The branches are thickened, and bear nodules in the axils of the fallen leaves. The leaves are unequally pinnate, crowded at the ends of the branches, and 20 to 40 centimeters long. The leaflets are alternate, entire, oblong-ovate, and 2 to 7 centimeters long. The flowers are pink, small, and crowded in many flowered fascicles along the racemes. The male and female flowers are usually on separate plants. The fruit is fleshy, acid, edible, greenish white, rounded and 1 to 1.5 centimeters in diameter, and contain a hard, bony, 6- or 8-grooved, 3- or 4-celled stone, each cell with a single seed.

The unripe fruit is eaten cooked as a sour flavoring. It can be made into jams and jellies, and is also pickled.

According to Prinsen-Geerligs, the fruit contains: dextrose 0.33 per cent, levolose 1 per cent, and saccharose. Wehmer records the presence of 18 per cent tannin in the root-bark; saponin, gallic acid, and a crystalline substance, melting at 228°, similar to lupeol.

In the Philippines a decoction of the leaves is applied to urticaria, and the fruit, which is astringent, is given at the same time, to eat. According to Guerrero, the bark yields a decoction, which is employed in bronchial catarrh.

According to Kirtikar and Basu and Chopra, the fruit is acid and astringent. The root is an active purgative, and the seeds are also cathartic. Burkill and Haniff report that the roots are considered poisonous, but the Malays boil it, or heat it, and inhale the stem for coughs. Burkill quotes Van Dongen, who states that, in Java, an infusion from a very little bit of the root may be drunk for asthma. Burkill continues that the leaves are medicinal in Java and Borneo. In Borneo they are used, with pepper, for poulticing for lumbago, or sciatica, and the root may be used for treating psoriasis of the soles of the feet. Caius reports that the root and the seed are cathartic. The juice of root-bark is used as a poison, often for criminal purposes. It produces headaches, sleepiness, and deaths accompanied by severe abdominal pains. Nadkarni says that the decoction of the leaves is good diaphoretic. The leaves are mucilaginous and demulcent and are given in gonorrhoea. (SOURCE)

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