Gmelina asiatica - Asian Bushbeech
❏ Binomial Name : Gmelina asiatica L.
❏ Synonym : Gmelina parviflora,Bignonia discolor,Premna parvifolia
❏ Family : Lamiaceae
❏ Common Name : Asian Bushbeech
❏ Tamil Name : Kumil
❏ Hindi Name : Badhara
❏ IUCN status: Not Evaluated
Gmelina asiatica Botanical Description
Bushy shrub erect or straggling, armed with spines 12-15 ft tall. Bark light brown, corky with lenticular tubercles, branches and branchlets obtusely quadrangular, rigid, tomentose, spines axillary about 1-3 cm long. Leaves simple, opposite, rhomboid-obovate or ovate, 0.7-5 x 0.5-3 cm across, base acute, margins entire or rarely lobed, apex acute rarely acuminate, chartaceous, glabrescent above, almost glaucous beneath, lateral veins 3-5 on either side of the midrib, impressed above and distinct beneath, petiole robust, slender, canaliculated, pubescent about 1-2.5 cm long, exstipulate. Inflorescence racemes axillary or terminal, 2-16 flowered, slightly curved or erect, pubescent about 8 cm long, bracts linear lanceolate pubescent. Flowers bisexual, zygomorphic, pubescent, yellow, pedicel about 5 mm long, calyx cupular, 4 toothed, teeth triangular very shallowly divided, pubescent, glanduliferous, about 1 cm long, corolla infundibular, 4 lobed, lobes pubescent, yellow, upper lobe and lower lobe opposite to each other, ovate, apex acute, lateral lobes oblong, corolla tube narrow, curvate, apex ampliate, throat ventricose, pubescent, Stamens 4, didynamous, 2 much exserted, 2 near the throat, rarely underdeveloped 5th stamen present, filaments filiform, slender, shining yellow, anther oblong, yellowish brown, basifixed, Ovary ovoid, slightly depressed at apex, style slender, yellow about the same length as the longer 2 stamens, stigma bi-lobed. Fruit drupe, subglobose, abut 2-3 cm in diameter, green when young later yellow and black when completely matured with a bony endocarp. Fl. &Fr.: November-December.
Gmelina asiatica Medicinal uses
❀ The juice of the fruit is applied to portions of the feet affected by 'alipunga', a kind of eczema
An infusion of the shoots is used internally as a treatment against rheumatism, yaws and nervous diseases
❀ Roots used as astringent, demulcent, rheumatism and catarrh of bladder. In siddha medicine root and leaves are used to cure diseases of kapham, vatam, digestive disorders, leucorrhoea, cystitis, oliguria and diarrhea.
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