Alstonia scholaris (L.) R. Br. (APOCYNACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Haale, Maddale.
Tulu: Paale mara.
Malayalam: Mukampala, Chhatnia.
Sanskrit: Sapta-parna.
Tamil: Wodrase.
Telugu: Edakala pala
English: Devil’s tree.
Description: Large tree, up to 30 m tall, with milky latex; bark dark grey, rough, lenticellate. Leaves 4-7 (rarely more) in a whorl, rarely opposite, oblong-lanceolate or obovate, 10-20 x 4-6 cm, acute to slightly obtuse at base, rounded to emerginate at apex, glabrous, dark green above, pale and covered with a whitish bloom beneath; main nerves numerous; petioles 0.5 – 1.5 cm long. Flowers in umbellately branched many flowered capitate cymes, greenish white, fragrant. Calyx tube short, lobes 5,, puberulous. Corolla tube short, salvar-shaped, puberulous without, lobes 5, greenish white. Disc 0. Stamens 5, inserted near the throat of corolla; filaments short. Carpels 2, distinct; style filiform; stigma 2-fid. The fruit is a dehiscing follicle, cylindrical, measuring 20-50 centimeters in length. It contains numerous seeds that are linear-oblong, roughly 6 millimeters long, flattened, and adorned with a fringe of hairs at both ends.
Flowering & Fruiting : December – March.
Distribution: India: Throughout. Common in evergreen and deciduous forests. Sri Lanka, Java, Tropical Africa, Eastern Australia. (S. Asia through Malesia to Australiaand Melanesia).
Uses: Wood white, soft, even grained, used for packing cases, tea boxes and writing boards, but not durable. It could also be used for plywood and second class matches. The bark, known as “Dita bark” which has intense bitter taste, has been used in treating malaria and other fevers and also used as a bitter tonic, astringent, laxative, anthelmintic, galactogogue, alterative, antileprotic, in treating leucoderma, dental caries, stomach-ache, used in the liquid extract form for chronic diarrhoea, asthma and cardiac troubles; the milky latex from the plant is applied externally to treat sores, ulcers, tumours and rheumatic pains and also administered to women after confinement; leaves used in beriberi, dropsy and fever; leaf and bark used in treating ulcers. It is included as an ingredient in ‘Saptachhaladi Kuatha,’ ‘Panchtiktogan Batis,’ ‘Saptacchaladi Taila,’ and ‘Saptaparna Ghaua satva.’
