Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taubert (PAPILIONACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Muthugada mara, Paalasha.
Malayalam: Palasin panatha.
Tamil: Porasu.
Telugu: Modugu.
English: Flame of the forest.
Description: Deciduous trees, 15-20 m tall with rough ash-coloured bark; young parts tomentose or downy. Leaves 3-foliolate; rachis 15-20 cm; petioles 10-15 cm long; leaflets rhomboid or broadly ovate, obtuse or retuse, terminal larger 10-20 x 10-20 cm, the lateral smaller, 10-15 x 7.5-10 cm, obliquely rounded at base, inequilateral, all obtuse or retuse at apex, glabrous above when old, finely silky and conspicuously reticulately veined beneath; petiolules ca 0.6 cm long. Flowers large, showy in ca 15 cm long racemes, flame-coloured. Calyx tube companulate, 1.0-1.5 cm long, dark olive-green, densely velvety outside, clothed with silky hairs within. Corolla 4-5 cm long, clothed outside with silky silvery hairs. Stamens 9+1; anthers uniform. Ovary stalked, style elongate, incurved; stigma small. The pod is curved and oblong, approximately 17 by 6 centimeters, flattened and splits open at the top. It contains a single seed that is obovate and compressed.
Flowering & Fruiting: January – May.
Distribution: India: Throughout. Sri Lanka.
Uses:
- The leaves are utilized in crafting platters, cups, and for food wrapping purposes. Bark astringent, used in piles, tumours and menstrual disorders; gum called “Butea gum” febrifuge, used for backache, phthisis, haemorrhagic affections, ulcers, sore throat, eye troubles; gum and flower used in diarrhoea; gum, flower and leaf astringent; leaf used in boils, pimples, flatulence, worms, piles; leaf and flower tonic, aphrodisiac, diuretic; flower depurative, used in orchitis, swellings, dysmenorrhoea; seed laxative and a well-known anthelmintic agent; seeds pounded with lemon juice acts as a powerful rubefacient and used as a cure for a form of herpes called “Dhobies itch”; extract of seeds, flowers and leaves reputed to have contraceptive property.
- In Ayurveda bark, flower, seed and resin used for worm infection, gastritis, sprue, piles, gout, leprosy, anorexia, abdominal disorders and splenic disorders. Seeds are an ingredient of Ayurvedic preparations like “Palasha Beejadi Churna”, “Palash Beejadi Kshara”, “Krimihara Churna” and “Krimighatini Bati”, the major use of all these preparations being anthelminitc.