MPdb: Melghat Plant Data Bank
MT011 : Sterculia urens Roxb. |
NEXT RECORD >>> |
|||||||||||||
| Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : | 49 |
|
||||||||||||
| Plant Location in Melghat : | Frequent throughout | |||||||||||||
| Plant Category : | Tree | |||||||||||||
| Plant's Current Status : | Common | |||||||||||||
| Plant Family : | Sterculiaceae | |||||||||||||
| Plant Common Name : | Karai, Kadhai, K-Teklej, Indian-tragacanth, gum karaya, Indian gum tragacanth • Hindi: Kulu • Kannada: Kurdu • Konkani: Pandruk • Tamil: Kavalam Tam • Malayalam: Paravakka • Telugu: Kavili • Marathi: Sardol • Rajasthani: Katila • Assamese: Odla • Gujarati: Kogdol • Oriya: Gudalo | |||||||||||||
| Synonym : | Cavallium urens (Roxb.) Schott & Endl. Clompanus urens (Roxb.) Kuntze. Kavalama urens (Roxb.) Rafin. |
|||||||||||||
| Description : | Deciduous trees, to 15 m high, bark 10-12 mm, white or greenish-grey, smooth, exfoliating in large, thin, papery flakes; blaze red; exudation yellowish-white, sticky; branches horizontal; branchlets pubescent. Leaves simple, palmately 3-5 lobed, alternate, clustered at the tips of branchlets; stipules free, lateral, cauducous; petiole 8-18 cm long, stout, pubescent; lamina 15-30 x 18-30 cm, orbicular, base cordate or sagittate, lobe apex acuminate or caudate-acuminate, margin entire, glabrous above, velvety pubescent beneath, coriaceous; 3-5-ribbed from base, palmate, prominent, lateral nerves 5-7 pairs, pinnate, prominent, intercostae subscalariform, faint. Flowers polygamous, greenish-yellow, in axillary panicles, covered with sticky tomentose of glandular, stellate hairs; calyx yellow, campanulate, hairy on both surfaces, lobes 5, a small hairy gland at the base of each lobe; petals absent; male flowers: staminal column short with 10 anthers at its tip; bisexual flowers: carpels usually 5, free, superior, on a short stout gynophore; style short, thick, hairy; stigmas 5; stamens in a ring round the carpel. Fruit an aggregate of 4-6 follicles, red, densely pubescent, mixed with stinging hairs; seeds 3-6, brown or black, oblong. | |||||||||||||
| Curated Medicinal Use / Activity : | Gum-tonic, Trees exude gum karaya used in foodstuffs as emulsifiers, stabilizers and thickeners. The gum is used as a bulk laxative. It is not absorbed by the body, but swells up inside the gut to provide a bulk of material that gently stimulates peristalsis. The gum is also used to treat throat infections. | |||||||||||||
| Plant's Phytochemicals : | - | |||||||||||||
| Reference : | ~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID : ~ S.D. Jagtap, S.S. Deokule and S.V. Bhosle; "Some unique ethnomedicinal uses of plants used by the Korku tribe of Amravati district of Maharashtra, India"; Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2006); 107: 463-469 PMID : |
|||||||||||||