Coomb teak Health Dictionary

Gmelina arborea

Verbenaceae

San: Gumbhari;

Hin:Gamari, Jugani-chukar;

Mal: Kumizhu, Kumpil;

Guj: Shewan; Pun:Gumbar; Mar: Shivanasal;

Kan: Kummuda;

Tam: Uni, Gumadi;

Tel: Gummadi;

Importance: Coomb teak, Candahar tree or Kashmeeri tree is a moderate sized, unarmed, deciduous tree which is a vital ingredient of the ”dasamula” (group of ten roots). The whole plant is medicinally very important. It promotes digestive power, improves memory, overcomes giddiness and is also used as an antidote for snake bite and scorpion sting. Roots are useful in hallucination, fever, dyspepsia, hyperdipsia, haemorrhoids, stomachalgia, heart diseases, nervous disorders, piles and burning sensation. Bark is used in fever and dyspepsia. Leaf paste is good for cephalagia and leaf juice is a good wash for foul ulcers and is also used in the treatment of gonorrhoea and cough. Flowers are recommended for leprosy, skin and blood diseases. The fruits are used for promoting the growth of hair and in anaemia, leprosy, ulcers, constipation, strangury, leucorrhoea, colpitis and lung disease.

Wood is one of the best and most reliable timber of India. It is used for making furniture, planks, carriages, printing boxes, musical instruments, shafts, axles, picture frames, jute bobbins, calipers, ship buildings, artificial limbs and stethoscopes.

In south India the bark of the tree is used by arrack manufacturers to regulate the fermentation of toddy. The plant is also grown in garden or avenues (Dey, 1988; Sivarajan and Indira, 1994).

Distribution: The plant is found wild throughout India from the foot of Himalayas to Kerala and Anadamans, in moist, semideciduous and open forests upto an altitude of 1500 m. It is also distributed in Sri Lanka and Philippines.

Botany: Gmelina arborea Roxb. Syn. Premna arborea Roth. belongs to Family Verbenaceae. It is an unarmed deciduous tree growing up to 20m height with whitish grey corky lenticellate bark, exfloliating in thin flakes. Branchlets and young parts are clothed with fine white mealy pubescence. Leaves are simple, opposite, broadly ovate, cordate, glandular, glabrous above when mature and fulvous-tomentose beneath. Flowers brownish yellow in terminal panicle. Calyx campanulate, pubescent outside and with 5 lobes. Corolla showy brownish yellow with short tube and oblique limbs. Stamens 4, didynamous and included. Ovary is 4 chambered with one ovule each; style slender ending in a bifid stigma. Fruits are fleshy ovoid drupes, orange yellow when ripe. Seeds 1 or 2, hard and oblong.

Agrotechnology: Coomb teak is a sun loving plant. It does not tolerate drought. But it grows in light frost. Rainfall higher than 2000mm and loose soil are ideal. The best method of propagation is by seeds but rarely propagated vegitatevely by stem cuttings also. Seed formation occurs in May-June. Seeds are dried well before use. They are soaked in water for 12 hours before sowing. Seed rate is 3kg/ha. Seeds are sown in nursery beds shortly before rains. Seeds germinate within one month. Seedlings are transplanted in the first rainy season when they are 7-10cm tall. Pits of size 50cm cube are made at a spacing of 3-4m and filled with sand, dried cowdung and surface soil, over which the seedlings are transplanted. 20kg organic manure is given once a year. Irrigation and weeding should be done on a regular basis. The common disease reported is sooty mould caused by Corticium salmonicolor which can be controlled by applying a suitable fungicide. The tree grows fast and may be ready for harvesting after 4 or 5 years. This plant is coppiced and traded. The roots are also used for medicinal purposes. The tree may stand up to 25 years.

Properties and activity: Roots and heart wood of Coomb teak are reported to contain gmelinol, hentriacontanol, n-octacosanol and -sitosterol. The roots contain sesquiterpenoid and apiosylskimmin, a coumarin characterised as umbelliferone-7-apiosyl glucoside and gmelofuran. The heart wood gives ceryl alcohol, cluytyl ferulate, lignans, arboreol, gmelonone, 6”-bromo isoarboreol, lignan hemiacetal and gummidiol. Leaves yield luteolin, apigenin, quercetin, hentriacontanol, -sitosterol, quercetogenin and other flavons. Fruits contain butyric acid, tartaric acid, and saccharine substances (Asolkar et al, 1992; Dey, 1988).

The roots are acrid, bitter, tonic, stomachic, laxative, galactogogue, demulcent, antibilious, febrifuge and anthelmintic. Bark is bitter, hypoglycaemic, antiviral, anticephalalgic and tonic. The leaves are demulcent, antigonorrhoeic and bechic. Flowers are sweet, refrigerant, astringent and acrid. Fruits are acrid, refrigerant, diuretic, astringent, aphrodisiac, trichogenous, alterant and tonic (Warrier et al; 1995).