Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb. (PAPILIONACEAE)
Common names
Kannada: Raktha honne, Volle honne;
Tulu: Benga.
Malayalam: Venga.
Tamil: Vengai.
Telugu: Yegi.
English: Indian kino tre.
Description: Large deciduous trees, 20-25 m tall; bark thick, yellowish – grey with vertical cracks. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, rachis 15-25 cm long; leaflets 5-7, alternate, elliptic-ovate to oblong, ca 11×7 cm, subacuate at base, obtuse, rounded, truncate or more or less retuse at the apex, glabrous; petioles 0.5 – 1 cm long. Flowers in 12-15 cm long, terminal, paniculate racemes. Calyx tube campanulate, dark brown. Corolla 1.5 cm long, petals all long-clawed, yellow. Stamens 10, monadelphous becoming isodiadelphous. The ovary is shortly stalked, featuring a filiform style and a capitate stigma. The fruit is a nearly circular pod with a broad wing, accompanied by a lateral sub-basal beak, measuring approximately 4 cm across. It has a convex shape and is pubescent. The seed is small.
Flowering : May – October.
Fruiting : July – February.
Distribution: India: South W. India. Common in dry deciduous forests, up to 1500 m.Sri Lanka.
Uses:
- The wood, displaying a yellowish-brown hue with darker streaks, is exceptionally hard and durable. It finds versatile use in construction, serving as material for doors, window frames, rafters, beams, posts, furniture, agricultural implements, railway sleepers, electric transmission poles, and pit props in mines. It is used in the construction of railway carriages, wagons, carts and boats. It is also used for drums, tool handles, camp furniture, mathematical instruments, picture-frames, combs, sport rifles and parts of textile looms. The wood is used as a fuel. The tree yields a gum-Kino which exudes when an incision is made through the bark.
- Kino is utilized in dyeing, tanning, and printing processes, while the leaves serve as excellent fodder. Additionally, the leaves are highly valued as a nutrient-rich manure in arecanut plantations. Kino from incision in bark astringent, used in diarrhoea, haemorrhage, haematuria, tongue diseases, locally in leucorrhoea; flower and Kino from bark febrifuge; leaf used externally on boils, sores and other skin diseases.
- The wood is purported to exhibit antidiabetic effects, and a decoction derived from it is prescribed to reduce blood sugar levels. Containers crafted from this wood are recommended for diabetic patients to store water. The efficacy of the water as an antidiabetic agent is believed to enhance when stored overnight in these containers and consumed in the morning.