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Taxonomic Hierarchy

1.2. Common names

Bengali: kinaka, palas, paras, polashi; English: flame of the forest; Hindi: chinchra, dhak, palas, paras; Sanskrit: kinsuka, palasa, Palasha, Urdu: palash, palashpapra.

Description

It is a straight, medium-sized, 12-15 m high, deciduous tree with a curved trunk and asymmetrical branches. It is slowly increasing its height and diameter year by year, at the age of 50 years its diameters would be 5 to 8 m and its height about 20 to 40 cm. The wood is greenish white in color, weighs approximately about 14 to 15 kg per cubic foot. The bark is grey colored. The leaves have 3 foliate, big and stipulate, 10−15 cm length petioles. Leaflets are obtuse, glabrous at the top, finely silky-smooth and noticeably reticulate veined bottom with cunneate or deltoid base. The calyx is dark olive green to brown in colour and densely silky outside. The corolla is lengthy with silky silvery hairs in outer surface. The bark of the palash tree is fibrous and bluish−gray to light brown in colour. When incised, it exudes a kind of red gummy juice. The leaves are compound, with three leaflets. The texture of the leaflets is rough, coriascious with the surface glabrescent on the top and hairy silky at the bottom. The figure is obliquely ovate and generally elliptic. The leaves fall off by December month and re-emerge during spring.

Reproductive features:

When the tree is leafless, it generates orange to red colored flower. These flowers begin appearing in February and keep on forming up to the end of April month. The size is approximately about 2 to 4 cm in diameter. These tend to be firmly gathered on leafless branches. Flowers are large, inflexible racemes 15 cm long with 3 flowers jointly form the tumid nodes of the dark olive-green velvety rhachis. The calyx tends to be dark grayish like the supporting branch itself. The upper parts are orange red.

The flowers on the superior portion of the tree make the appearance of a fire from a distance.

The fruit of the palash is a horizontal legume, pods stalked 12.5−20 by 2.5−5 cm, solidified at the sutures. Immature pods have a bunch of hair and a silky cover and mature pods fall down. The seeds are flat, from 25 to 40 mm length, 15 to 25 mm width, and 1.5 to 2 mm thickness. The seed cover is reddish-brown in colour, silky, and wrinkled, and encloses two large, leafy, yellowish cotyledons. The hilum is conspicuous, and situated near the middle of the concave edge of the seed (Mazumder, 2011).

Butea monosperma (Lam.) Taub (Syn. Butea frondosa; Family Fabaceae) generally known as ‘dhak’ or ‘palas’, usually known as ‘Flame of forest’, Bastard teak, Bengal kino (Kirtikar, 1935).This is moderate sized deciduous tree which is largely distributed in India, Burma and Sri lanka extending in the north west Himalayas (Chopra, 1958). This plant is often described as flame of forest due to its bright red-orange papilionaceous flowers (Tandon & Shivanna et.al 2003). All the parts of this plant, including flowers, seeds, leaves and barks possess medicinal properties (William Rasican & Kavya, 2011).

Medicinal properties:

The red juice gum obtained from wounded bark of the tree known as Bengal Kino, applied externally to treat ulcers [Chopra et al., 1958]. It is a potent astringent, and orally given gum juice used to treat diarrhea and dysentery; phthisis and hemorrhages from stomach and bladder. A gum juice is applied to bruises and inflammations and ringworm [Nadkarni and Nadkarni, 1976]. In unani medicine, it is used as aphrodisiac, tonic to liver; used to treat thoracic diseases [Agharkar, 1991].

Bengal Kino, used to treat leucorrhoea [Agarwal, 1997; Dhiman, 2003] haemorrhoids, haemoptysis, diabetes, leprosy, skin diseases, pharyngodynia, general debility, hyperacidity, dyspepsia and fever [Bhattacharjee, 2001; Varier, 1993].The stem bark is used as astringent, bitter tonic, emollient, aphrodisiac, appetizer, digestive, and anthelmintic [Varier, 1993]. Orally given bark decoction used to treat catarrh, cold and coughs [Nadkarni and Nadkarni, 1976].

Bark is used to treat liver disorders, dysmenorrhoea and gonorrhea in Unani medicine [Mhasker et al., 2000]. The leaves used as astringent, tonic, diuretic and aphrodisiac properties [Mhasker et al., 2000]. Externally applied leaves juice used to boils, pimples tumours haemorrhoids and orally given juice to treat flatulence, colic, worms infestations and piles [Nadkarni and Nadkarni, 1976].

The root bark is utilized as an aphrodisiac and as an analgesic and anthelmintic. It is also used to treat, piles, ulcers, tumour and dropsy [Dhiman, 2003]. Seeds are used as anthelmintic for roundworms. Externally applied paste made with lemon juice to treat skin diseases [Agharkar, 1991]. Seeds contain fixed oil called as Moodsga oil. In Ayurveda seeds are used to cure skin diseases, tumours abdominal troubles; orally given seed for scorpion-sting and seeds useful in piles, eye diseases, inflammation in Unani medicine [Mhasker et al., 2000].

The flowers used as an astringent, diuretic, depurative, aphrodisiac and tonic; In Unani medicine the flowers are used to relieve biliousness, inflammation and gonorrhoea and in Ayurveda flowers used to treat leprosy, gout, skin diseases, and their juice for eye diseases [Mhasker et al., 2000]. Among tribal population in Madhya Pradesh, externally applied flower paste over chest to treat asthma and aqueous juice of flower drink given for the treatment of sunstroke. A decoction of the petals is given to treat diarrhoea and to puerperal women [Dey, 1980]. Flowers decoction applied as poultice they reduce inflammation and facilitate diuresis and menstrual flow. Orally given aqueous extract of flower used to difficult micturition [Nadkarni and Nadkarni, 1976].

It grows all over India and South Asia isthmus, many parts of this plant such as flower, bark, leaf and seed gum are used in traditional medicine. The Ayurvedic formulations made from this plant are used to reduce the Vata and Kapha in tridosha of Ayurvedic medicine. Butea monosperma is widely used in ayurveda, unani and homeopathic medicine. Flowers are astringent to bowel, in heal “Kapha”, leprosy, strangury, gout, skin diseases, thirst sensation; flower juice is used to treat eye diseases. Flower is bitter, aphrodisiac, expectorant, tonic, emmenagogue, diuretic, and good in biliousness, inflammation and gonorrhoea. They are used to diminish swelling and to regularize menstrual cycle. Orally given flower juice is used for the treatment of diarrhea. In addition flower juice help to treat males urinogenital tracts diseases (Sharma, 2011).

Flower extract of Butea monosperma exhibited anticonvulsive activity, because of the presence of a triterpene (Kasture et al., 2002) and antifertility activity demonstrated by alcoholic extract of Butea monosperma flowers has also been reported (Razdan et al., 1970), and butrin illustrated both male and female contraceptive activity (Bhargava,1986).

Previously many biological activities of the flower extracts with its isolated chemical constituents were studied and it was reported as to have anticancer activity, prophylaxis against inflammation and cancer was studied with butein a isolated chalcone; Inhibition of inflammatory gene expression from the extract of flower with its phytocontituents butein, butrin, iso butrin and isocoreopsin; antioxidant activity of flower extract with its isolated content rutin; Anti inflammatory activity, anti-diabetic effect; anticonvulsant activity and hepatoprotective effect of methanolic extract and its isolated phytochemicals isobutrin and butrin (William Rasican et al., 2011).