Name - खदिरः

Botanical name - Acacia catechu

Description - Deciduous trees with greyish brown bark. Leaves pinnate with a pair of recurved prickles. Flowers pale yellow, in spikes. Pod glabrous, oblong laterally compressed. It is also called as black cutch. It is the dried extract from the heart wood. It occurs as black angular pieces or blocks in commerce, When it is mentioned as white cutch a different drug is meant, it is extract from leaves and twigs of Uncaria garbir of the family Rubiaceae.

Chemical Constituents- It contains nearly 50% of catechutannic acid, catechol, quercetin And catech red.Heartwood contains catechin and catechutannic acid, 1-epicatechin and gossypetin, flavonoids, kaempferol, dihydrokaempferol, taxifolin, isorhamnetin, afzelchin, procyanidin, quarcetin and epicatechin. Seed oil contains fatty acids. Tree yields "Khair" gum

Use - The drug is astringent, cooling and digestive. It is used in cough and diarrhoea. It is employed as an application to ulcers and boils and inflammatory eruptions. Kheersal is found in some of the older trees and used in sore throat and cough. Used in tooth powders, skin disorders like scabies eczema etc, diabetes, gum and teeth diseases, as a colouring agent