Canthium angustifolium Roxb. (RUBIACEAE)
Common names
Malayalam: Kattara-mull.
Tamil: Mullu nenki, Kattu kara.
Description: Subscandent armed shrubs; spines 1-1.2 cm long, slightly curved; branches rusty-pubescent. Leaves opposite, ovate-cordate to lanceolate, 4.5 – 9 x 2-4 cm, rounded at base, acuminate at apex, glabrous and shining; petioles 2-3 cm long, rusty-pubescent. Flowers in axillary fascicles, 5-merous, greenish-white. Calyx tube turbinate, lobes 5. Corolla tube short, lobes 5, reflexed, white. Stamens 5, attached to the throat of corolla; filaments very short. Ovary 2-locular, style short, hairy; stigma fusiform. The fruit is a drupe, either globose or obcordate, measuring 1-1.5 cm across, and turns dark blue when ripe. It contains two compressed seeds.
Flowering & Fruiting : November – June.
Distribution: India: In the evergreen and semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghatsand West Coast. Myanmar.
Uses: Leaf used in swellings and root-bark anticephalgic.