संस्कृत नाम- कदम्ब
Botanical name - Anthocephalus cadamba
Description - Large deciduous tree with a straight stem about 20 m high and up to 2 m girth with a beautiful contour of drooping branches; leaves simple, opposite, stipulate, petioiate, coriaceous, 12.5-23.0 cm long, shining above, pubescent beneath; flowers in globose heads, orange coloured, scented at night; fruits confluent into a fleshy globose mass of many few-seeded coriaceous pyrenes.
Chemical_Constituents- Dried stem bark contains sapogenins cadambagenic acid and quinovic acid, Beta-sitosterol and 4 saponins A, B, C, D, steroid, tannins. Heartwood contains alkaloid cadambine. Leaves contain quinoline akaloids - cadambine, cinchonine and dihydrocinchonine, Beta-sitosterol, isocadambine, 3-dihydrocadambine, 3-isodibydrocadambine, 3Beta-dihydrocadambine and 3Beta-isodihydrocadambine. Methanolic extract of leaves contains cadambine, cadamine, hentriacontanol, 3-dihydrocadambine and isodihydrocadambine.
Uses - Traditional use: SANTALS : (i) Bark: paste is given to the patients of continuous fever to drink, juice squeezed out from the paste obtained by grinding this bark along with barks of mango tree and sal tree is given to the patient of cholera with a little shell lime; (ii) Decoction of stem-bark: given to the patient of dyspepsia; (iv) Leaf: to cover sores and wounds; (v) Juice of leaf with common salt: in stomach pain. SHUKLA YAJURVEDA : pollens strengthen body and mind; CHARAKA SAMHITA : prescribes the following uses: (i) Bark: strengthens body and removes fever, in rectifying defects of semen, to cure urinary troubles; (ii) Leaf: cures pimples and wounds, analgesic; Leaf-juice : stops burning sensation of palms and feet and scaling off of skin; Extract of leaf: for gurgle; (iii) Fruit: good to quench thirst during high fever; SHUSHRUTASAMHITA : Leaf: analgesic, useful in diseases caused by phlegm, rheumatism and in inflammation of glands; BRAHMAVAIVARTA PURANA : brushing teeth with twig of this plant beneficial for teeth; AYURVEDA : Root and Flower: abortifacient; Fruit: cooling, analgesic and decoction in stomatitis. Modern use: EtOH (50%) extract of stem-bark: anthelmintic and hypoglycemic.