Calophyllum inophyllum L. (GUTTIFERAE)
Common names
English: Dielo Oil tree, Alexandrian Laurel.
Sanskrit: Nagachampa, Panchkesara, Punnaga.
Kannada: Honne.
Tamil: Pinnai.
Malayalam: Punna.
Telugu: Poona or Puna.
Description: Towering trees reaching up to 20 meters in height, displaying a wide-spreading crown. Their bark varies from brown to pale grey, often marked with broad, boat-shaped clefts; they produce milky or yellow exudate. The branchlets are either compressed or slightly flattened. Leaves opposite, broadly elliptic-oblong or obovate, 15-20×5-9 cm, cuneate to rounded at base, rounded or subacute at apex, thinly coriaceous; midrib prominent below, venation distinct, close, raised on both surfaces giving the blade a seriate appearance; petioles stout, flat. Flowers in 5-15-flowered, 5-13 cm long axillary racemes, polygamous, marble white, fragrant. Sepals 4. Petals usually 4. Stamens numerous (175- 440), connate into 4-6 bundles; anthers rounded, yellow when young, brownish at maturity. Ovary, globose, depressed, pink or light purple after pollination. Fruit a drupe, globose or spherical to obovoid, 2.5-5×2.5-4 cm, yellowish when ripe. Seed solitary, subspherical, up to 2 cm across.
Flowering: Probably flowering throughout the year with several flushes.
Fruiting: December – October.
Distribution: India: Common in coastal regions. Orissa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Lakshwadeep and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Tropical East Africa to Taiwan, New Caledonia.
Uses:
- The oil extracted from the seeds serves various purposes, such as making soap, burning, painting, and functioning as a lubricant; it can also act as a substitute for castor oil. The wood is either reddish-white or reddish-brown in color. The timber is durable under water and is used for beams, furniture, railway carriages, cooperage, crane shafts and ship building, especially for keels and for pully blocks. It is also used for fishing boats and cabinet work. Bark boiled in water is used for dyeing fishing nets.
- Cultivated as an ornamental and for shade throughout India. The root is used for treating ulcers; the resin is used as a purgative, emetic, applied to wounds and ulcers; bark astringent, used in internal haemorrhage; decoction of bark applied in indolent ulcers; pounded bark used in orchitis and its juice used as purgative; leaf is used in soar throat, vertigo and migraine; leaf soaked in water and applied to inflated eyes; the decoction of flower is given to cure syphilis, eczema and insanity; seed oil known variously as Wundi; Pinnay; Domba; Dillo; or Poonseed oil applied externally in rheumatism and skin diseases. Refined oil is injected intramuscularly to relieve pain in leprosy.
