Botany names

Description - Evergreen tree, reaching 10-13 m in height and girth of 2 m; stembark rough dark brown, about 1.25 cm thick; leaves alternate, simple, short-petioled, crowded towards the ends of branches, elliptic, 12.5 by 5.0 cm; racemes terminal and lateral, elongated-often 33 cm, pendulous; flowers pink, 0.6 cm in length, funnel-shaped; fruits Bluntly quadrangular fruits and crowned with the smell persistent calyx.flowered recemes.

Chemical Constituents- Fruits contain Barringtonin, a Crystalline saponin of about 3% barnigtogenol D, barnigtogenol C. Heart-wood contains Beta- and gama- sitosterols, tanginol- a triterpene alcohol and a triterpene dicarboxylic acid; alcoholic extract on hydrolysis contain barringtonic acid. Branch wood contains barnigtogenol E, barnigtogenol B. Bark, root, seeds contain saponins

Use - Powdered seed used as an emetic and expectorant The Roots, and Fruits are mainly used in medicine both as dried and fresh.. The roots are Bitter and a good substitute for Cinchona; it is locally applied in colds, paste of fruits applied for the throat pain. The leaves are used to treat diarrhoea and dysentery. Fruits are also used in skin diseases. It is one of the content of Dashanga churna, an Ayurvedic preparation which treats skin diseases.