A large deciduous tree, with a dense spreading crown. Bark thin, grey, dark brown, exfoliating when old, in irregular woody scales. Wood brick red, soft, shining, even-grained, fragrant; seasons readily ; does not split or warp (Gamble). Leaves paripinnate, l-2ft. long, generally glabrous. Leaflets 8-30, usually opposite, 2-6 by ¾-2½in., lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, sometimes pubescent beneath ; margins entire, usually wavy ; base acute, somewhat oblique. Petiolule ⅓-¾in. long, slender. Flowers cream-coloured, scented like honey, in ample drooping panicles. Calyx short, lobes ciliate. Petals 1/6-1/5in. long, free, oblong or ovate, ciliate. Disk hairy at the orange-coloured lobes. Stamens 5, inserted on the lobes of the disk. Stigma capitate, with a large depression at apex. Capsule septifragally dehiscent, ¾-1in long by 1/5-⅓in. diam., oblong or oblanceolate, dark brown. Seeds reddish brown, light, with a submembranous wing at either end, about ½in. long, including the wings.
Dun and Sharanpur, generally in marshy places. Tropical Himalaya, from the Indus eastward throughout the hilly districts of Central and Southern India. Burma. Absent in Ceylon.
It is known as the red Toon.
Parts used :— The bark and flowers.
Uses : — The bark of this tree is a powerful astringent, and may be resorted to when other remedies of the same class are not available. Dr. Waitz (Dis. of Children in Hot Climates, p. 225) used with success an extract of the bark in chronic infantile dysentery. Blume attributes valuable antiperiodic virtues to it, and in this character it is favourably noticed by Dr. J. Kennedy (Ann. of Med. 1796, Vol.1, p. 387). Dr. Æ. Ross speaks of it as a reliable antiperiodic, and, Dr. J. Newton, as a good substitute for cinchona. The dose of the dried bark is about an once daily in the form of infusion. The powder of the bark was found by Dr. Kennedy to be of great service as a local astringent application in various forms of ulceration. (Ph. Ind.)
The flowers, called gul-tur in Bombay, are considered emmenagogue.
