Category: Uses and benefits

Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taubert (PAPILIONACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Muthugada mara, Paalasha.
Malayalam: Palasin panatha.
Tamil: Porasu.
Telugu: Modugu.
English: Flame of the forest.

Description: Deciduous trees, 15-20 m tall with rough ash-coloured bark; young parts tomentose or downy. Leaves 3-foliolate; rachis 15-20 cm; petioles 10-15 cm long; leaflets rhomboid or broadly ovate, obtuse or retuse, terminal larger 10-20 x 10-20 cm, the lateral smaller, 10-15 x 7.5-10 cm, obliquely rounded at base, inequilateral, all obtuse or retuse at apex, glabrous above when old, finely silky and conspicuously reticulately veined beneath; petiolules ca 0.6 cm long. Flowers large, showy in ca 15 cm long racemes, flame-coloured. Calyx tube companulate, 1.0-1.5 cm long, dark olive-green, densely velvety outside, clothed with silky hairs within. Corolla 4-5 cm long, clothed outside with silky silvery hairs. Stamens 9+1; anthers uniform. Ovary stalked, style elongate, incurved; stigma small. The pod is curved and oblong, approximately 17 by 6 centimeters, flattened and splits open at the top. It contains a single seed that is obovate and compressed.

Flowering & Fruiting: January – May.

Distribution: India: Throughout. Sri Lanka.

Uses:

• The leaves are utilized in crafting platters, cups, and for food wrapping purposes. Bark astringent, used in piles, tumours and menstrual disorders; gum called “Butea gum” febrifuge, used for backache, phthisis, haemorrhagic affections, ulcers, sore throat, eye troubles; gum and flower used in diarrhoea; gum, flower and leaf astringent; leaf used in boils, pimples, flatulence, worms, piles; leaf and flower tonic, aphrodisiac, diuretic; flower depurative, used in orchitis, swellings, dysmenorrhoea; seed laxative and a well-known anthelmintic agent; seeds pounded with lemon juice acts as a powerful rubefacient and used as a cure for a form of herpes called “Dhobies itch”; extract of seeds, flowers and leaves reputed to have contraceptive property.
• In Ayurveda bark, flower, seed and resin used for worm infection, gastritis, sprue, piles, gout, leprosy, anorexia, abdominal disorders and splenic disorders. Seeds are an ingredient of Ayurvedic preparations like “Palasha Beejadi Churna”, “Palash Beejadi Kshara”, “Krimihara Churna” and “Krimighatini Bati”, the major use of all these preparations being anthelminitc.

Breynia vitisidaea (Burm. f. ) C. Fischer (EUPHORBHIACEAE)

Common names
Kannada: Kaadu nugge.
Tulu: Palli soppu.

Description: Small glabrous monoecious shrubs; branches distichous, horizontal. Leaves alternate, elliptic to broadly ovate, 3-5 x 1.5 – 2.5 cm, rounded or sub-acute at base, obtuse or sub-acute at apex, pale beneath, drying black; petiole up to 3-5 mm; stipules minute. Male flowers solitary; pedicels 1-3 mm long. The perianth lobes in female flowers are sharp-pointed, enduring, and do not increase in size in the fruits. The styles are very brief. The fruit is spherical, reaching sizes of up to 5 millimeters in diameter, remains closed, and turns orange-red upon ripening.

Flowering: June

Fruiting: September

Distribution: India to Malaysia and China.

Uses: Leaves applied as poultice to hasten suppuration; leaf juice given after parturition to prevent haemorrhage; dried leaves smoked like tobacco for relief in tonsilitis; astringent bark used to guard against haemorrhage.

Bridelia scandens (Roxb.) Willd. (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Description: Larger scandent shrubs; stem thorny, shoots brown pubescent. Leaves alternate, elliptic-oblong or obovate, 4.5 – 9 x 2.5 x 4.2 cm, rounded or subcordate at base, obtuse at apex, entire or undulate, fulvous-pubescent beneath; nerves 8-10 pairs. The flowers are arranged in an inflorescence of interrupted pseudospikes with leaves that gradually decrease in size, and they are unisexual. Calyx lobes 5. Corolla lobes 5. Stamens 5. Disc without bristles, greenish yellow. Fruit a drupe, globose, ca 0.4 cm across, turning black when ripe.

Flowering & Fruiting: October – January.

Distribution: India: Western peninsular India and N. Circaras. Common in deciduous to semi-evergreen forests of Western Ghats.

Uses: The decoction of the leaf and bark are used in gargles, in tooth-ache and mouth ulcers.

Bridelia retusa (L.) Sprengel (EUPHORBIACEAE)

Common names
Sanskrit: Mahavira.
Kannada: Asana, Gurige, Komanji.
Tamil: Mullu vengai.
Malayalam: Mukkayini.
Telugu: Bouthayepi, Dudhi-maddi, Kora maddi.

Description: Small trees, up to 12 m tall; stem with strong conical spines. Leaves alternate, elliptic-oblong, up to 14 x 7 cm, obtuse at base, retuse at apex, brown pubescent beneath; with many parallel lateral and cross nerves. Inflorescence of axillary or terminal spikes. Flowers dioecious, yellow. Calyx lobes 5. The corolla has five lobes, and there are five stamens. The ovary is divided into two sections. The drupe is spherical, approximately 0.5 centimeters in diameter, and black. Each drupe contains one to two seeds.

Flowering & Fruiting: August – November.

Distribution: India: Almost throughout. Sri Lanka, Indomalaysia.

Uses: Wood grey to olive-brown with a pretty silver grain, useful and durable. It is used for making carts, cart shafts, wheels, agricultural implements etc. It is also suitable for turnery and carving. Bark is used for tanning. Bark anthelmintic, antirheumatic, used for treating pain in lumbago and sciatica, promotes fertility; root and bark astringent.

Bombax ceiba L. (BOMBACACEAE)

Common names
Sanskrit: Salmali.
Booruga: Booruga.
Tulu: Booruga.
Tamil: Pula-maram, Ilava.
Malayalam: Mullu buragamara, Mocha, Elevam, Poola.
Telugu: Pula, Salmali, Mundla buraga.

Description: Trees that shed their leaves, reaching heights of up to 40 meters, typically possessing buttresses; their bark is grayish and adorned with prickles. Leaves palmately compound; petioles 12-25 cm long; leaflets 5-7, lanceolate to elliptic, 12-24×7-10 cm, tapering at base, acuminate at apex; petiolules 2-2.5 cm long. Flowers solitary or in clusters towards tips of leafless branchlets, 10-12 cm long. Calyx campanulate, irregularly 2-5 lobed, silky inside. Petals 5, obovate to elliptic-obovate, rarely oblong, fleshy, bright red (or white). Stamens 65-80, in 6 bundles in 2 series. Ovary 5-locular; stigmas 5-fid. Fruit a capsule, oblong to ovoid, 11-18 cm long, velvety, 5-valved, valves silky inside. Seeds numerous, pyriform, dark brown, embedded in creamy white silky fibres.

Flowering: February – March

Fruiting: April – May

Distribution: India: Throughout up to 1500 m.

Uses:

• The soft leaves, flower buds, and succulent calyces are consumed. The youthful roots can be eaten either raw or roasted, much like sweet potatoes. The blunt thorns from the trunk of young trees are chewed as a substitute for betel-nut. Although perishable, the wood is one of the most useful ones in India. The timber is most widely used in the match industry, especially for matchboxes. It is suitable for the manufacture of cheap grade light plywood for tea chests, packing cases, for canoes, shingles, toys, scabbards, musical instruments, pencils, penholders, frames, light cooperage, coffins, well-curbs, brush handles, as cushions for mine props, and for inside partitions of opium chests. Fine shaving of wood, known as wood-wool are good for packing.
• When in full bloom, these trees create a spectacular display of vibrant colors and are commonly planted in avenues. Their seeds are enveloped in silky cotton, which constitutes the commercially valuable ‘kapok’. The floss is suitable for stuffing life-belts and other life saving appliances, besides mattresses, cushions and pillows, upholstery and quits. The floss is also used as an insulating material for refrigerators and sound-proof covers and walls. It is also used for packing fragile goods and for making padded surgical dressings. Young twigs and leaves are lopped for fodder. The seeds are fed to cattle. The seed-cake is an excellent cattle-feed.
• The young tap root is reported to possess astringent, stimulant, tonic, aphrodisiac, emetic and demulcent properties, it is also used in dysentery; the infusion of the bark is given as a demulcent, emetic and tonic, and its aqueous extract mixed with curd is used to check blood-dysentery; externally it is used as styptic, and also for fomenting wounds; the paste of the bark is applied to skin eruptions; the gum known as ‘Semul’; gum or & ‘Mocharas’ is credited with astringent, tonic and demulcent properties and is used for dysentery, haemoptysis in pulmonary tuberculosis, influenza and menorrhagia; the flowers are astringent and cooling; the paste of flowers, as also that of leaves, is employed as an applications in cutaneous troubles; the young fruits are reported to be employed as expectorant, stimulant and diuretic and considered beneficial in calculous affection, chronic inflammation and ulceration of the bladder and kidney.

Blepharistemma membranifolia (Miq.) Ding Hou (RHIZOPHORACEAE)

Description: Trees, up to 9 m tall; branchlets glabrous. Leaves elliptic-oblong, up to 15 x 7 cm, acuminate,. Inflorescence of 3-4 cm long axillary cymes. Flowers white. Calyx lobes 4, triangular, erect, short. Petals 4, clawed, spathulate, lacerate at apex. Stamens 8; filaments ciliate. Ovary 3-4-locular; style slender, elongated; stigma shortly 3-lobed. The fleshy capsule is oval-shaped, reaching up to 1 centimeter in length, ending with a lasting style, and displaying a greenish-black color.

Flowering: March – April.

Fruiting: June – July.

Distribution: India: West coast and Western Ghats, from Coorg to Travancore, up to 800 m in evergreen forests. Endemic.