A tree that grows to a height of 30m with a girth of 2.1m. Bole is straight, with low flutes and small buttresses. Bark is blackish-brown, smooth, gridcracked, with small square adherent scales. Inner bark is cream with broken, orange–yellow laminations, and without latex. Wood is yellowish-brown. Leaves are simple, exstipulate, and in whorls of four.Petiole is 2–3cm long. Blade is elliptical, 15–25cm × 9cm and shows 20–24 pairs of secondary nerves which are distant and arising at an acute angle to the midrib. Calyx, pedicel, and peduncle are covered with yellowish hairs persisting in the fruits. Petals are broadly rounded up to 3.7–5.7 mm, glabrous with ciliate margins, and the tube is 4.5–6mm long and glabrous. Fruits are pairs of follicles which are 30cm × 3mm and contain numerous hairy seeds at the apices and are pointed at one end.

As a febrifuge, tonic, antiperiodic, antidysenteric, emmenagogue, anticholeric, vulnerary, antiamoebic, and antimalarial (bark); antiseptic (leaves)

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

Used to treat fever, fatigue, irregular menses, liver disease, dysentery, malaria, headache, diabetes, and to expel worms from the intestines (bark); to cure lung and ear congestions (young leaves); applied to sprains, bruises, and dislocated joints (heated leaves); to assuage stomachache and to counteract putrefaction of urine and externally for the treatment for skin disorders (leaves and stem bark).

Christophe Wiart. Medicinal Plants of Asia and the Pacific, P:248-249, CRC Press, June 2006.