A large sized tall, deciduous tree having straight, buttressed trunk with a clear bole and widespread branches. The trunk and branch bark are gray in color having hard, sharp and conical prickles. Leaves are large, deciduous, digitate and glabrous. Leaflets 3 to 9, entire, lanceolate or oval, cuspidate and tip is acute. Petiole is long (up to 20 cm), petiolules 1,2 to 2.5 cm long, and stipules small and caducous. Flowers solitary or clustered, axillary or sub-terminal, fascicles at or near the ends of the branches, when the tree is bare of leaves. Calyx is cup-shaped usually 3 lobed. Corolla red or white, petals 5, oblong, recurved, fleshy, tomentose on the out side and sparingly pubescent inner. Staminal tube is short, more than 60 in 5 bundles. Ovary conical, glabrous, stigma 5, capsule ovoid, 5 valued dehiscing by 5 leathery, woody valves and lined with white silky hairs. Seeds are numerous, long, ovoid, black or gray in colour and packed in white cotton.

Astringent, stimulant, expectorant, diuretic, diaphoretic, emmenagogue, ecbolic and antiseptic properties.

Herbal Monograph
Herb Information

Boswellic acids, Glycosides and tannins (root, stem and leaf); lupeol and b-sitostrol (stem bark); 3 naphthalene derivatives related to gossypol and called as 'semigossypol' (root bark); b-sitosterol, traces of essential oil, kaempherol and quercetin (flowers).

In ulcers, tumours, goitre, cystic breast, diarrhea and dysentery, piles and skin diseases; useful in rheumatoid arthritis and cervical adenitis, found to improve blood supply to the joints and restore integrity of vessels weakened by spasm.

The LD50 was established at >2 g/kg.

Sharma PV. Classical Uses of Medicinal Plants.