Habitat : — Western Peninsula, throughout the South Con can and Malabar. Moist low country. Ceylon.
A small glabrous tree, 30-35ft., with stout branches. " Bark pale, transversely cracked. Wood light yellow, soft, no heart- wood. Pores small, very scanty. Medullary rays very fine, uniform, closely-packed " (Gamble). Leaves simple, 8 by 3in. or larger, blunt, with short thick petioles, coriaceous, elliptic — oblong, shining, quite entire. Flowers numerous, bisexual, 4- merous, pinkish yellow, in dense pedunculate umbels, short-stalked. Calyx small, thick, ciliated, persistent in fruit. Petals narrowly oblong, often spiculate, f-lin. long. Stamens twice as many as petals ; filaments, with a small hairy scale at base, very long. Ovary on a gynophore, usually deeply lobed. Fruit oval, 1½in. by lin. (Bennett), of one carpel, thickly coriaceous, shining, compressed, keeled, 2 by 1½in. (Brandis.)
Parts used : — The bark, leaves, seeds and oil.
Use : — " The bark is used by the natives as a febrifuge. An oil extracted from the kernels of the fruit forms a good application in rheumatism. The bruised leaves are externally applied in erysipelas. The seeds are worn round the neck as a preventive of asthma and chest affections. An infusion of the wood is also taken as a general tonic" (Rheede and Drury).
The root is used medicinally by the Singhalese. An infusion of leaves is a good insecticide and destructive to white ants (Trimen.)
" An infusion of the wood is taken as a general tonic. This drug may well be used as a substitute for quassia" (Dymock .
From the seeds were obtained :— (1) A fatty oil, forming 63 p. c. of the whole, and consisting of triolein 88, tripalmitin 8, and tristearin 4 p. c; (2) a proteid, soluble in alcohol and in water, and containing 18 p. c. of nitrogen ; (3) sucrose ; (4) a sugar that reduces Fehling's solution directly ; (5) inositol ; (6) a crystalline bitter substance.
From the bark :— (1) The same bitter substance as from the seeds; (2) a crystalline bitter substance crystallising in yellow plates, probably an anthraquinone derivative ; (3) atannic acid belonging to the group of phloro-glucotannoids ; (4) ellago tannic acid ; (5) a tannic acid closely resembling tannin ; (6) a large amount of inorganic salts.
From the wood :— (1) A bitter substance crystallising in yellow, rhombic prisms; (2) a bitter substance very closely allied to quassin.
