Category: Uses and benefits

Mangifera indica L. (ANACARDIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Mavina mara;
Malayalam: Manga.
Tamil: Manga, Mao.

Description: Trees, 20-45 m tall; glabrous except the inflorescence. Leaves alternate, linear-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, 15-30×3.5-6.5 cm, cuneate at base, acute-acuminate at apex, thinly coriaceous; petioles 1.5 cm long. Panicles terminal, rarely axillary, 15-35 cm long. Flowers male and bisexual, 5 mm across, yellowish green or reddish white; pedicel 1.5- 3 mm long. Calyx 5-lobed; lobes 2×1 mm tomentose. Petals 5, elliptic, 3×1.2 mm, tips reflexed. Stamens 5, 1 fertile, 2.5 mm long, rest sterile. Ovary obliquely ovoid; style lateral, 2 mm long, 1-celled. The fruit is a sizable drupe with variable dimensions, ranging from oblong to subreniform. It is fleshy with sweet juice and can be green, yellowish, or red. The solitary seed is large, ovoid-oblong, and compressed.

Flowering & Fruiting: February – June.

Distribution: India: Sub Himalayan tract up to 1000 m, and other hilly areas of central, eastern and southern India. Cultivated in greater part of the country. Nepal,Bangladesh, Myanmar and Malaysia.

Uses:

• Tender fruits are transformed into pickles, while ripe fruits are known for their delicious flavor. The leaves find use in religious ceremonies. The wood, ranging in color from grey to greenish-brown, possesses moderate strength and is employed in various applications such as furniture, floor and ceiling boards, window frames, tea-chests, packing-boxes, matchboxes and splints, brush backs, as well as oar blades and agricultural implements.
• Additionally employed in the construction of dugouts, boats, plywood, and shoe heels, the wood of this plant produces a hard charcoal with high caloric value. The stem releases a gum resin, serving as a substitute for gum arabic. The bark yields a dye which is used in dying cotton, silk, wool etc. Bark used in uterine haemorrhage; fruit laxative, diuretic; seeds used in asthma. In Ayurveda bark, leaf, flower and seed kernel are used in ear diseases, diarrhoea, haemorrhage and menorrhagia.

Macaranga peltata (Roxb.) Muell.-Arg. (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Chandakala, Chandakanni.
Tulu: Uppalige.
Malayalam: Vatta.
Tamil: Vattikanni.

Description: Resinous trees up to 10 m tall; branchlets glaucous; young parts brown tomentose. Leaves alternate, peltate, orbicular or broadly ovate, up to 50 x 21 cm, rounded at base, acute or acuminate at apex, red-glandular and villous beneath; peliole up to 25 cm long. Male flowers in axillary panicles, clustered in the axils of large bracts with dentate apex. Perianth lobes 3. Stamens 2-3. Female panicles simpler than in the male. The ovary is globose and densely glandular, with a lateral style. The capsules are globose, approximately 5 mm in diameter, and glandular. It contains a solitary, globose seed.

Flowering : March.
Fruiting : May.

Distribution: India: Orissa and Peninsular India. Sri Lanka.

Uses: Wood suitable for matches. The red gum can be used for taking impressions, for sizing paper and as a substitute for gum arabic. Wood suitable for paper-pulp. Decoction of leaves and bark used as vulnerary.

Mammea suriga (Buch.- Ham. ex Roxb.) Kosterm. (GUTTIFERAE)

Common names
Kannada: Suragi.
Konkani: Rani-undi.
Malayalam: Suran punna.
Sanksrit: Naga-Kesaram-pushpam.
Tamil: Naga-pu, Nagashop-pu.
Telugu: Surapanna.

Description: Evergreen trees, up to 18 m tall, glabrous, monoecious; bark rough, exfoliating in irregular pieces; sap milky; branchlets obscurely 4-angled. Leaves opposite or ternately verticillate at apieces of branchlets, oblong, up to 22 x 7 cm, obtuse at base, obtuse, retuse or acuminate at apex, dark green, shiny, glabrous; petioles 5-10 mm long, channeled above. Flowers in dense fascicles on nodes of old wood or in axils of fallen leaves, unisexual, often bisexual in cultivation, sweet-scented; bracteoles ca 8. Calyx opening into 2 values, lobes concave, reflexed during anthesis, reddish. There are four deciduous petals that are oblong-obovate and acute, with a white color streaked with red. The numerous stamens (60-100) are yellow. The fruit is a berry, obliquely ovoid, measuring 2.5-3 x 1-1.5 cm, and contains 1-4 seeds, each approximately 2 x 1 cm.

Flowering & Fruiting: March – July.

Distribution: India: In evergreen and deciduous forests up to 600 m. Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Cultivated in Assam, West Bengal, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. Bangladesh.

Uses: Fruits are delicious and eaten. Wood sometimes used for building purposes, planking and for mats of boats. Seeds yield a viscid gum. Flowers (buds) used for dyeing silk. Cultivated for its handsome foliage and sweet-scented flowers; planted as an avenue tree and in household gardens. Flowers used in Hindu worship and for decorating hair. Flower buds mild stimulant, carminative, astringent and used in dyspepsia.

Madhuca longifolia (L.) Macbr. (SAPOTACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Hippe, Ippigida.
Tulu: Ippe mara.
Malayalam: Elupi, Irippa.
Tamil: Illupei, Iruppai.
Telugu: Ippa, Ippe-chettu.

Description: Deciduous trees, 10-12 m tall with milky juice, bark thick, dark brown, scaly; joung parts pinkish white, silky pubescent. Leaves clustered near the ends of the branches, linear lanceolate or broadly elliptic, cuneat at base, acute at apex, 7-15 x 4-7.5, glabrous when mature; main nerves 10-12 pairs; petioles 1-2 cm long. Flowers in dense clusters near the ends of the branches below the leaves, white, fragrant. Calyx 1-1,5 cm long, densely rusty pubescent, lobes 4. Corolla-tube fleshy, inflated, lobes 8, in 2-seriate. Stamens 16-20, in 3-seriate; filaments short. The ovary is 8-locular with a long style. The fruit is a tomentose, oblong or ovoid berry, around 3 cm in diameter, and brown. It contains 1-2 seeds that are compressed, with one side straight and the other curved.

Flowering : November – January.
Fruiting : January – May.

Distribution: India: Common in deciduous forests of Western Ghats at low elevations. Sri Lanka, Myanmar.

Uses:

• The sizable, fleshy cream-colored corolla is rich in sugar and can be consumed either in its raw state or after cooking. Additionally, a spirit is distilled from them, and they are employed in the preparation of vinegar. The large greenish fruits have large fleshy cotyledons, from which a valuable oil (Madua butter, Illeppe butter) is extracted which is eaten and used for soap-making. Refined oil finds use in the manufacture of lubricating greases and fatty alcohols. The oil is also used for candles, as a batching oil in jute industry and as a raw material for the production of stearic acid. Madhuca berries are also eaten.
• Wood used for building purposes. Flowers are used as feed of livestocks; spent flowers after fermentation are also used as feed. Leaves are used as green manure. Madhuca cake is also used as manure. Madhuca cake possesses insecticidal properties and is also used as a fish poison. Root and bark used in ulcers; bark antidiabetic, astringent, emollient, used in gum troubles, tonsillitis; flower tonic, demulcent, laxative, stimulant, anthelmintic, antidote for snakebite, bechic, used in eye diseases, bronchitis; seed oil (Madua oil) galactogenic, anticephalalgic, emetic, used in skin diseases, piles, pneumonia, cold; seed oil and gum used in rheumatism. Bark used in stomach-ache of horses and bone fracture of cattle.