Mesua ferrea L. (GUTTIFERAE)
Common names
Kannada: Nagasampige, Nagakesara.
Malayalam: Nanga, Peri.
Sanskrit: Bhujangakhya, Kanchana, Kesara.
English: Indian Rose chestnut.
Description: Evergreen trees, up to 30 m tall; often buttressed at base; bark smooth, ash-colored, grey, turning dark brown, exfoliating in large, white flakes. Leaves opposite, decussate, very variable, linear –lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate, lanceolate or elliptic-oblong, 6-15 x 2-4 cm, obtuse or acute at base, acute, acuminate or cuspidate at apex, shiny; new leaves crimson red turning pink and ultimately becoming dark green; lateral nerves very fine, nearly parallel; petioles slender, 5-12 mm long. Flowers axillary and terminal, usually solitary, bisexual, white, showy, sweet-scented. Sepals 4 in 2 pairs, imbricate, fleshy, persistent. Petals white with brown or purple veins, obovate or obcordate, cuneate. Stamens numerous, forming a globose, yellow mass. Ovary bilocular, ovules 2 in each locule. The fruit is ovoid to globose, featuring a conical point, measuring 2.5-3.5 x 3-4 cm. It is supported by adpressed and accrescent sepals. There are 1-4 seeds, each about 2.5 mm long, with a smooth texture and a shiny, dark brown testa.
Flowering : January – March.
Fruiting : May – October.
Distribution: Almost throughout India, including Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Nepal, Bangladesh, SriLanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam Cambodia, Thailandand Malacca.
Uses:
- Refined seed oil is suitable for soap making. Wood dark red or deep reddish brown, hard, strong, heavy, used for railway sleepers, bridges, posts, beams, construction work, electric poles, boat building, well construction, agricultural implements, crushers, bearings, tool handles, golf club heads, walking sticks, musical instruments and cabinet work. A good fuel wood. The reddish brown volatile oil from flower is used for perfuming soaps. The tree is lopped for fodder.
- Planted as avenue tree. Bark tonic after child birth, used in anaemia; bark and flower bechic; bark and unripe fruit sudorific; bark, unripe fruit and flower astringent; leaf and flower antidote for snakebite and scorpion sting; flower-bud used in dysentery; flower stomachic, expectorant, used in piles, burning of feet; seed oil used in skin diseases and rheumatism. In Ayurveda anthers are used in diseases of head, throat, urinary bladder disorders, poisoning, nausea, vomiting, leprosy, erysipelas, thirst and piles.It is an ingredient of “Nagakeshara-adichurna” used for bacillary dysentery and of “Nagakeshara yoga” used for piles.