Adenanthera pavonina Uses and benefits

Description: Large deciduous trees, 15-20 m tall with grey bark. Leaves bipinnate, opposite, 20-30 cm long; petioles 5-10 cm long; pinnae 3-6 pairs; leaflets 4-8 pairs, alternate, elliptic oblong, 2.5 – 4 x 0.8 – 2.0 cm, shortly cuneate at base, obtuse at apex, glabrous, dark green above, glaucous beneath; petiolules ca 0.8 cm long. Flowers in 5-15 cm long short-peduncled axillary or panicled spiciform racemes, pale at the ends of branches, yellow. Calyx 5 short, campanulate, 5-lobed. Petals 5, united at the base, linear-lanceolate, acute, valvate. Stamens 10, free; anthers ending in a stipitate glands. Ovary sessile, many-ovuled; style filiform; stigma small, terminal. Fruit a dehiscing pod, flat, 15-23 x 1.5 – 2 cm, falcately curved, pointed, tapering to the base. Seeds 8-15, lenticular-globose, ca 0.8 cm diam., smooth, shining, brilliant scarlet.

Flowering & Fruiting: July – October.

Distribution: India: Western Peninsula. Commonly cultivated in gardens and avenues; run wild.
Sri Lanka, China,  Malaya islands, Timor and Philippines.

Uses:  The heart wood is red and is used as a substitute for true red sandalwood (Pterocarpus santalinus L. f.). The wood is used for building purposes and for cabinet making. Commonly cultivated in gardens and avenues run wild. Seeds used as beads and weights by goldsmiths. Leaf astringent, used in rheumatism, diarrhoea, gout, haemorrhage from the bowels and haematuria; seed anti-inflammatory, anticephalagic, used in boils and prickly heat; decoction of seeds and wood used in pulmonary affection and externally applied in chronic ophthalmia.