Aglaia elaeagnoidea (A. Juss.) Benth. (MELIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Thottalu.
Tamil: Chokkala.
Description: Trees reaching heights of up to 15 meters; young sections, inflorescence, and calyx adorned with brown lepidote scales. Leaves imparipinnate, up to 25 cm long; leaflets 3-7, opposite, elliptic to oblanceolate, up to 17 x 6 cm, base unequal, acute or cuneate, apex obtusely acute, lepidote beneath. Flowers polygamous, globose, in up to 25 cm long panicles, yellow. Calyx cup-shaped, 5-lobed, ciliate along margins. Petals 5, elliptic-oblong. Stamens 5, inserted in the middle of the subglobose staminal tube. Ovary stellately lepidote; stigma ovoid or obscurely lobed. Berries subglobose or pyriform, ca 2 cm across, buff-coloured, velvety-lepidote-tomentose. Seed solitary, exarillate.
Flowering & Fruiting: November – August.
Distribution: India, Bihar, Orissa, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
Malesia and Indonesia (Java and Sumatra).
Uses: Fruit antidiarrhoeal, alterative, astringent, tonic, employed in leprosy, burning sensation of the body, inflammations and febrile complaints; seeds used in painful micturition.
