Mallotus philippensis (Lam.) Muell. – Arg. (EUPHORBIACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Kumkumada mara.
Malayalam: Manjana.
Sanskrit: Kampillake.
Tamil: Kamala, Kapli.
Telugu: Kumkuma.
Description: Small, dioecious trees up to 9 m tall; branchlets rusty-tomentose. Leaves alternate, crowded near the tip, ovate, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-elliptic, up to 25 x 9 cm, rounded at base, acute or shortly acuminate at apex, glaucous and red-glandular beneath, 3-ribbed at base; petioles up to 6 cm long. Male flowers in axillary or terminal clustered spikes, pale yellow. Perianth lobes 4. Stamens numerous, free. Female flowers are arranged in short spikes, featuring a perianth with 3 or 4 parts. The ovary is red-glandular and 3-celled, with three styles. The capsules are globose, measuring about 7 mm across, densely adorned with crimson glandular pubescence, and have 3 valves. The seeds are subglobose and blackish.
Flowering : June – September.
Fruiting : January.
Distribution: India: Throughout tropical Indian. Sri Lanka, Malaya Islands, China and Australia.
Uses:
- The wood is appropriate for use in rafters, tool handles, matchboxes, and small turned articles such as bobbins, cotton reels, penholders, and rulers. Additionally, it serves as a reliable source of fuel. The red powder (‘Kamala’) on the capsules furnishes valuable bright orange dye which is employed in dyeing silk and wool a bright flame-colour. It has also been used for colouring food stuffs and beverages, and as ‘Sindhur’ or ‘Kumkum’ by women. Leaves are used as fodder. Oil-cake can be used as manure. Kamal seed oil obtained by extraction with petroleum ether forms a good substitute for tung oil in the formulation of rapid drying paints and varnishes.
- The oil may also be employed in the formulation of hair fixis and ointments. Glandular hairs of the fruits yield the “Kamala powder” used in abdominal disorders, worm infection particularly for tapeworm, tympanites, constipation, polyuria, poisoning, disorders of kapha, wounds, urinary calculi, as purgative, styptic and in scabies, ringworm and herpes. The Ayurvedic preparations using this plant are “Krimighatini bati” and “Krimikuthar rasa” used as anthelmintic.