Botanical name : Sterculia foetida Linn
Family : Sterculiaceae
SANSKRIT SYNONYMS
Pootidaru, Vitkhadira
AYURVEDIC PROPERTIES
Rasa : Kashaya, Katu
Guna : Lakhu
Virya : Ushna
PLANT NAME IN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES
English : Pinari
Hindi : Jangali badam
Malayalam : Peenari
Distribution : Throughout south India, in deciduous forests.
PLANT DESCRIPTION
A moderate to large size tree, grows up to 20 m in height with reddish brown heartwood, whitish bark and whorled horizontal branches; Leaves palmate, crowded at the ends of branches, leaflets 7-9, subsessile, oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, pubescent when young, glabrous when mature. Flowers dull orange, fetid smelling in erect racemes unisexual, male flowers with curved long staminal column, female flowers with stout gynophore and deflexed style; fruits 1-5 oblong, boat-shaped, bright red follicles; seeds 10-15 ovoid-oblong, and black.
MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
Plant pacifies vitiated vata, kapha, fever, convulsions, neuropathy, worm infestations, erysipelas, skin diseases, ulcers and headache.
Useful part : Heartwood
CHEMICAL CONTENTS
The leaves gave glucuronyl derivatives of procyanidin, scutellarein and luteolin; also taraxerol, n-otacosanol and beta-sitosterol. Lupenone, lupeol and betulin were obtained from the heartwood. Seed and root lipid contained cyclopropene fatty acids. Sterculic and malvalic acids show carcinogenic and co-carcinogenic activities. Leucoanthoyanidin-3-O-alpha-L rhamnopyranoside and quercetin rhamnoside have been isolated from the root.
Photo : Dinesh Valke
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