Dysoxylum binectariferum (Roxb.) Hook. f. ex Beddome (MELIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Kadu gandha.
Tamil: Agurivagil, Cambil.
Description: Evergreen trees up to 30 m tall; young parts and inflorescences minutely pubescent. Leaves pinnately compound, alternate, up to 75 cm long; leaflets 6-8, alternate or subopposite, elliptic-oblong up to 17 x 8 cm, acute at base, acuminate at apex, unequal sided entire or obscurely dentate along margins; petiolules ca 1 cm long. Flowers in 20-30 cm long panicles, pale white. Calyx copular, 4-lobed. Petals 4, velvety. Staminal tube mealy, 4-angled, terminating in 8 obscurely 2-fid teeth; anthers 8, included. Disc tubular, 8 toothed. The ovary has four compartments and is covered in fine hairs; the style is four-angled, leading to a capitate stigma. The fruit is a capsule, obovoid in shape, reaching lengths of up to 3 cm. Initially pale-yellow, it changes to an orange hue. Within are four shining seeds, purple in color, featuring a large yellow hilum.
Flowering & Fruiting: July – December.
Distribution: India: Sikkim, Arunachala Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Meharashtra, Goa, Daman & Diu, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Sri Lanka.
Uses: Heart wood oil used in dyspnoea, diseases of head, ear and eye, leprosy and wounds; gum is used in coryza, headache, fever, skin diseases and vomiting.