Indian Medicinal Plants/Natural Order Cornaceæ
N. 0. CORNACEÆ.
588. Alangium Lamarckii, Thwaites. h.f.b.i., ii. 746.
Syn. : — A. hexapetalum, Lamk. Roxb. 404.
Sans. : — Ankota.
Vern. : — Akola, thaila ankûl (Hind, and Dec.) ; Ankola, kalâ-akolâ (Bom.) ; Akar-kanta, baghankara (Beng.) Alangi, azhinji (Tam.) ; Amkolam-chettu (Tel.) ; Ankola (Gond.) ; Dhalâkura (Beng.) ; (in U. C. Dutt's Mat. Med.) Anisarulimara, eopoata (Can.); Onkla (Guz.) ; Dela (Santal) ; Ankol (Kol.) ; Ankula, dolanku (Uriya).
Habitat : — Sub-Himalayan tract, from the Ganges eastward to Oudh, Bengal, Central and South India.
This is a very handsome tree, and grows very well in the Concan. Whether in foliage, flower or fruit, in whatever condition or season it is seen, it is a striking plant. It is beautifully green-leaved throughout the year. Gamble, however, says " it is a deciduous small tree, shrub or straggler." Brandis says "a shrub or small tree." "Bark ½in. thick, grey, when young orange-yellow, fibrous. Wood hard, close and even-grained, sapwood light yellow, heartwood olive-brown with a pleasant scent " (Gamble). From all accounts it appears to be a very variable plant. My description is mainly drawn from a large tree growing with a girth of 9 feet in the Military Hospital, Thana (1881-1897), and in the adjacent Mahomedan grave-yard where the main trunks of several trees constantly sent out " suckers." The tree in the Military Hospital compound had nearly half a dozen distinct trees developed from such suckers, within an area of 20ft. around (See Vol. X.p. 260, Journal Bombay Nat. Hist. Society, Part 11, March. 1896. K. R. Kirtikar's Poisonous Plants of Bombay). Branchlets generally spinescent. Leaves membranous, varying exceedingly in shape, from oblong to elliptic-obovate, from obtuse to acuminate, blade 3-6 in.; petiole ¼-⅓in. long, pubescent on the under surface when full-grown. Flowers very fragrant, white, solitary or fasciculate, pedicels and Calyx hairy, petals lin. long, 5-10, usually 6, hairy outside. Fruit a berry ⅔ in, long, with a beautiful crimson (not-black) tough epicarp, a pulpy mucilaginous mesocarp and a bony endocarp. Seed oblong, solitary, pendulous. Cotyledons large, flat, with three basal nerves, in copious albumen which it is not ruminated (Brandis).
Uses : — The root is described by Sanskrit writers as heating, pungent and acrid. It is laxative and useful in worms, colic, inflammations and poisonous bites. The fruit is said to be cooling, tonic, nutritive, useful in burning of the body, consumption, and in hæmorrhage (U. C. Dutt). It has also a a reputation in leprosy.
In native practice, the root-bark is used as anthelmintic and purgative. In Bombay, the leaves are used as a poultice to relieve rheumatic pains (S. Arjun).
Dr. Moodeen Sheriff, in his most valuable Supplement to the Pharmacopœia Indica says : " It has proved itself an efficient and safe emetic in doses of fifty grains ; in smaller doses it is nauseant and febrifuge. The bark is very bitter, and its repute in skin diseases is not without foundation."
In a further report upon this drug, he states : " It is a good substitute for Ipecacuanha, and proves useful in all diseases in which the latter is indicated, except dysentery. As a diaphoretic and antipyretic, it has been found useful in relieving pyrexia. Doses as a nauseant, diuretic and febrifuge : 6 to 10 grains of the root bark ; as an alterative : 2 to 5 grains ; it is given in leprosy and syphilis ; the natives consider it to be alexiteric, especially in cases of bites from rabid animals."
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