MEDICINAL PLANTS OF DWARKA: 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.