Brief Information about Species

Table1: Brief Information about Species

Name of Species	Family	Medicinal Uses
Azadirachta indica	Meliaceae	Cough, fever, loss of apetite, worm infestation, wound healing, Diabetes
Aloe vera	Aloaceae	Epilepsy, depression, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, skin problems
Achyrenthes aspera	Amaranthaceae	Asthma, cough, snake bite
Gardenia jasminoides	Rubiaceae	Pain, digestive and skin problems, insomnia
Mimusops elengi	Sapotaceae	Dental ailments, Heart diseases
Punica granatum	Punicaceae	Sore throats, coughs, urinary infections, digestive disorders, skin disorders, arthritis,
Cascabela thevetia	Apocynaceae	Febrifuge, root plaster applied to tumours
Gmelina arborea	Verbenaceae	Hallucination, piles, abdominal pains, burning sensations, fevers, ‘tridosha’ and urinary discharge
Leucanthemum vulgare	Asteraceae	Whooping cough, night sweats, asthma and nervous conditions
Melia azedarach	Meliaceae	Natural insecticide
Cynodon dactylon	Poaceae	Cuts and wounds,piles, catarrhal ophthalmia

Melia azedarach

Melia azedarach

Scientific Name: Melia azedarach

Family: Meliaceae (Mahogany Family)

Common Name: Chinaberry, pride-of-India,umbrella-tree, white cedar

M. azedarach is described as a small to medium-sized shrub or tree in the mahogany family (Meliaceae). Branches are stout, with purplish bark dotted with buff-coloured lenticels. Leaves are twice to three-times compound, alternate, and puberulent to glabrous. Leaflets are 2-8cm long, serrate or crenate, dark green above, often with sparse hairs along the veins, and lighter green and generally smooth below. The inflorescence is a panicle from leaf axils and from leafless nodes on the lower part of the new growth. The perfect flowers are 5-parted. Sepals are green, 1.5-2mm long. Petals are pinkish lavender, ligulate, 1-1.3cm long. Stamens are united into a cylindrical, dark purple tube, 6-8mm long, and cut at the apex into 15-25 slender teeth. Each flower has ten anthers. Flowers are fragrant. (Batcher, 2000) states that the fruit is a stalked, one-seeded drupe that is greenish yellow to yellowish tan, globose, and 1-1.5cm in diameter (Burks 1997).

Occurs in: natural forests, range/grasslands, riparian zones, ruderal/ disturbed, urban areas, wetlands.

It is an invasive species, and used as an Ornamental plant. The plant was introduced around 1830 as an ornamental in the United States and widely planted in southern states. Today it is considered an invasive species by some groups as far north as Virginia and Oklahoma. But nurseries continue to sell the trees, and seeds are also widely available. It has become naturalized to tropical and warm temperate regions of the Americas and is planted in similar climates around the world. Besides the problem of toxicity, its usefulness as a shade tree in the United States is diminished by its tendency to sprout where unwanted and to turn sidewalks into dangerously slippery surfaces when the fruits fall, though this is not a problem where songbird populations are in good shape.

Medicinal Uses:

The clusters of lilac flowers are fragrant in the evening but are often hidden by the emerging foliage. The leaves turn a vivid yellow for a short time in the fall. The golden yellow fruit is quite attractive as it persists on the tree during the fall and winter. When eaten in quantities, the fruit is poisonous to people but not to birds. The wood is very brittle but it has been used in cabinet making.

Leaves have been used as a natural insecticide to keep with stored food, but must not be eaten as they are highly poisonous. Chinaberry fruit was used to keep drying fruit from having worms in the fruit from insects laying eggs in the fruit. By placing the berries in drying apples (etc) and keeping the fruit turned in the sun without damaging any of the Chinaberry skin the fruit will dry and not have insect larvae in the dried apples.

A diluted infusion of leaves and trees has been used in the past to induce uterus relaxation.

Melia azedarach Fruit

Melia azedarach Flower

Gmelina arborea

Gmelina arborea

Scientific name: Gmelina arborea

Family: Verbenaceae

Common names: Gamhar, Beechwood, Gmelina, Goomar teak, Kashmir tree, Malay beechwood, White teak, Vemane

Description: Gmelina arborea locally known as Gamhar, is a fast growing tree, which grows on different localities and prefers moist fertile valleys with 750–4500 mm rainfall. It does not thrive on ill-drained soils and remains stunted on dry, sandy or poor soils; drought also reduces it to a shrubby form.

The Gmelina arborea tree attains moderate to large height up to 30 m.  Wood is pale yellow to cream coloured or plukish-buff when fresh, turning yellowish brown on exposure and is soft to moderately hard, light to moderately heavy, lustrous when fresh, usually straight to irregular or rarely wavy grained and medium course textured. Flowering takes place during February to April when the tree is more or less leafless whereas fruiting starts from May onwards up to June. The fruit is up to 2.5 cm long, smooth, dark green, turning yellow when ripe and has a fruity smell.

This tree is commonly planted as a garden and an avenue tree; growing in villages along agricultural land and on village community lands and wastelands. It is light demander, tolerant of excessive drought, but moderately frost hardy. It has good capacity to recover from frost injury. Gamhar trees coppices very well with vigorous growth.

Medicinal Uses:

The root and bark of Gmelina arborea are stomachic, galactagogue laxative and anthelmintic; improve appetite, useful in hallucination, piles, abdominal pains, burning sensations, fevers, ‘tridosha’ and urinary discharge. Leaf paste is applied to relieve headache and juice is used as wash for ulcers. Flowers are sweet, cooling, bitter, acrid and astringent. They are useful in leprosy and blood diseases. In Ayurveda it has been observed that Gamhar fruit is acrid, sour, bitter, sweet, cooling, diuretic tonic, aphrodisiac, alternative astringent to the bowels, promote growth of hairs, useful in ‘vata’, thirst, anaemia, leprosy, ulcers and vaginal discharge. The plant is recommended in combination with other drugs for the treatment of snake – bite and scorpion- sting. In snake – bite a decoction of the root and bark is given internally.

 

Gmelina arborea

Gmelina arborea Flower