An evergreen shrub or small crooked tree with a conical crown, 3—8(—10) m tall, with a deep taproot; bark greyish or yellowish-brown, shallowly fissured, glabrous; branchlets quadrangular. Leaves opposite and simple, elliptic-lanceolate, (10—)15—50 cm x 5—17 cm, entire, acute to shortly acuminate at apex, cuneate at base, pinnately nerved, glabrous; petioles 0.5—2.5 cm long; stipules variable in size and shape, broadly triangular. Inflorescences globose heads, 1—4 cm long peduncled, in axils of stipules opposite normally developed leaves; flowers bisexual, fragrant; corolla funnel-shaped, up to 1.5 cm long, white; stamens inserted on the mouth of the corolla; stigma bilobed. Fruit an ovoid syncarp of red-brown, pyramidal, 2-seeded drupes, 3—10 cm x 2—3 cm, yellow-white. Seeds black, with hard albumen and distinct air chamber.

Febrifuge and tonic (roots); tonic and antiseptic (bark); febrifuge, tonic and antiseptic (leaves); diuretic, laxative, emollient and as an emmenagogue (fruit); anthelmintic (roots, leaves and fruits).

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

Anthraquinone, asperuloside (root); ascorbic acid, niacin, riboflavin, thiamin (leaf); damnacanthal, lucidin (tissue culture)

Used to treat stiffness and tetanus, and to combat arterial tension (roots); as antiseptic on skin lesions, ulcers and wounds (bark); to treat dysentery, diarrhoea, colic, nausea and convulsions (leaves); for asthma and other respiratory problems, as a treatment for arthritic and comparable inflammations, in cases of leucorrhoea and sapraemia and for maladies of inner organs (fruits).