Botany names

Description - Pterocarpus marsupium is a large deciduous tree with a stout crooked stem and widely spreading branches. Yellowish- grey, thick bark and outer layer. Compound leaves 5-7 leaflets, coriaceous, oblong, obtuse, emarginate, shining. Yellow flowers in terminal panicles. Pale yellow corolla with crispid margins. Small seed winged --- Flowers about 1.5 cm long, yellow, scented, in very large, dense bunches. Fruit 2-5 cm long, roundish, winged, with one seed -- Heart-wood black. Leaves imparipinnate; leaflets elliptic-ovate or oblong, emarginate. Flowers yellow, in terminal panicles. Pod orbicular, winged.

Chemical Constituents- Plant yields a gum Kino. Bark contains 1-epicatechin and reddish colouring matter. Wood contains colouring matter, essential oil and a semidrying fixed oil. Roots contain chalcones pterosupin, pseudobaptigenin, liquiritigenin, isoliquiritigenin, garbauzol, 5-deoxy-kaempferol and p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, flavanone glycosides. Heart-wood contains alkaloid and resin, yields liquiritigenin, isoliquiritigenin, isoflavone glycosides - retusin 7-glucoside, irisolidone 7-rhamnoside, 5,7,- dihydroxy-6-methoxy isoflavones 7-rhamnoside, oleanolic acid, phenolic compounds, aukrone glycosides, marsupol isoflavonoid, benzofuranone marsupsin. Flowers contain aukrone glycosides.

Use - Leaves, flowers and gum of the tree are medicinal. The gum called Kino exudes from incisions in bark. It astringent and useful in diarrhoea. Bruised leaves are applied on boils, sores and other skin diseases. Bark is used in uterine bleeding, It is boiled with milk and used as drink. heart wood is used in diabetes.