Botany names

Description - Tall, dioecious palm, attaining a height of 20-23 m and a girth of 1-2 m; trunk stout, unarmed, very rarely branching, often swollen above the middle; 30-40 leaves form a crown at the top; leaves alternate (spiral), petioles 0.6-1.2 m long, wide, armed with spines at margins, ligules short, leaf blade palmately fan-shaped, plicately multifid, 2-3 m in diameter, segments 60-120 cm, linear, bifid, margins spinulose; spadix of male and female florets more than 1 m long, very stout, peduncles sheathed with open spathes, female spadix sparingly branched; male florets small, mixed with scaly bracts, female florets 2.5 cm in diameter, globose, perianth fleshy, greatly accrescent; fruits large, 20 cm in diameter, subglobose, drupe with 1-3 obcordate fibrous pyrenes, brown when young, black when mature; seeds oblong, top trilobed, testa adherent to the pyrene, consists of a soft, sweet, gelatinous pulp with a little liquid in them.

Chemical Constituents- Tree yields a gum, sugars, butyric acid.

Use - It is useful in liver and spleen diseases.Fresh sap of palm is called 'Neera' which has stimulant and antiphlegmatic properties, useful in inflammatory affections and leprosy