Melghat Plant Data Bank

MT006 : Flacourtia indica (Burm. f.) Merr.

Plant Category	:	Tree
Melghat's Flora's Serial No.	:	19
Synonym	:	Flacourtia afra Pichi-Serm.; Flacourtia balansae Gagnep.; Flacourtia cordifolia Roxb.; Flacourtia edulis Schum. & Thonn.; Flacourtia elliptica (Tul.) Warb.; Flacourtia flavescens Willd.; Flacourtia gambecola Clos.; Flacourtia hirtiuscula Oliv.; Flacourtia kirkii Burtt Davy.; Flacourtia lenis Craib.; Flacourtia lucida Salisb.; Flacourtia obcordata Roxb.; Flacourtia parvifolia Merrill.; Flacourtia perrottetiana Clos.; Flacourtia ramontchi L'Herit.; Flacourtia ramontchi var. renvoizei Fosberg.; Flacourtia rotundifolia Roxb.; Flacourtia sapida Roxb.; Flacourtia sepiaria Roxb.; Flacourtia thorelii Gagnep.; Gmelina indica Burm. f.; Gmelina javanica Christm.; Mespilus silvestris Burm.; Myroxylon dicline Blanco.; Rhamnopsis sepiaria Rchb.; Sideroxylon spinosum Willd.; Stigmarota africana Lour. Stigmarota edulis Blanco.;
Plant Common Name	:	Gurgati, G-Katian, Governor's Plum, Batoka Plum, flacourtia, Indian plum, Madagascar plum, Mauritius plum, Rhodesia plum • Hindi: bilangada • Marathi: athruna, tambut • Tamil: cottai-k-kala • Malayalam: karimulli • Telugu: nakka-neredu • Konkani: babhuli tambat • Sanskrit: shruvavrikksha
Plant Family	:	Flacourtiaceae
Description	:	a shrub or small tree up to 15 m tall. It is generally spiny with rough bark. Bark is usually pale, grey, powdery, may become brown to dark grey and flaking, revealing pale orange patches. The spines are sometimes branched and up to 12 cm long. Vegetative parts vary from glabrous to densely pubescent. The leaves vary in shape and size; blade ovate or elliptic, sometimes suborbicular or obovate, apex obtusely acuminate, obtuse or rounded, base cuneate to rounded, membranous to almost coriaceous, serrulate-crenate, or more rarely subentire, 2.5-12 (-16) cm long, 2-8 cm broad; lateral nerves 4-7 pairs, slightly prominent on both faces, as is the more or less dense reticulation; petiole up to 2 cm long. Flowers are dioecious or occasionally bisexual (1 or several branches of a female specimen with perfect flowers, which, however, bear fewer stamens than in the male ones). Male flowers in axillary racemes 0.5-2 cm long; pedicles slender, more or less pubescent, up to 1 cm long, the basal bracts minute and caducous. Sepals broadly ovate, apex acute to rounded, pubescent on both sides, 1.5-2.5 mm long and broad. Filaments 2-2.5 mm long; anthers 0.5 mm long. Disk lobulate. Female flowers in short racemes or solitary; pedicels up to 5 mm. Disk lobulate, clasping the base of the ovoid ovary; styles 4-8, central, connate at the base, spreading, up to 1.5 mm long; stigmas truncate. Fruit is globular, reddish to reddish black when ripe, fleshy, up to 2.5 cm across, with persistent styles, up to 10-seeded. Seeds are 8-10 mm long, 4-7 mm broad; testa rugose, pale brown.
Plant Location in Melghat	:	Common throughout
Medicinal Use / Activity	:	An important herb in Ayurveda, where infusions of the bark, leaves and root are used medicinally to treat conditions such as fever, Diarrhea and inflammations. The leaf is carminative, astringent and used as a tonic, an expectorant and for asthma, pain relief, gynaecological complaints and as an anthelmintic, and treatment for hydrocele, pneumonia and intestinal worms. The leaves are used as an anti-dote to snake bites. The root and ash have been used as a remedy for kidney complaints. The roots are sweet, refrigerant, depurative, alexipharmic and diuretic. They are useful in vitiated conditions of pitta and vata aphthae, poisonous bites, skin diseases, pruritus, erysipelas, strangury, nephropathy and psychopathy. The leaves are useful in pruritus and scabies. The fruits are sweet, appetizer, digestiveand diuretic, and are useful in strangury jaundice, gastropathy and splenomegaly.
Plant's Phytochemicals	:	COMPOUNDS: Beta-sitosterol; Ramontoside; Flacourtin; Scoparone; Aesculetin; Mururin A; kaempferol; quercetin; apigenin-7-O-beta-D-glucuronopyranoside; quercetin 3-O-beta-D-galactopyranoside; quercetin 3-O-alpha-rhamnopyranosyl(1-6)beta-D-glucopyranoside; ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (4): Beta-sitosterol; Quercetin; Kaempferol; Apigenin;
Plant's Current Status	:
Plant's Cross Database Reference	:	259142
Reference	:	Dhore M. A. (1984) The flora of melghat tiger reserve - https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/229763 - http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Flacourtia+indica - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Governor's%20Plum.html - https://www.cabi.org/isc/datasheet/24211 - http://www.phytojournal.com/archives/2016/vol5issue6/PartE/5_6_43_761.pdf - http://www.mdpi.com/2305_6320/3/4/31/pdf
Reference	:	~ Jennifer L. McCracken, Sreenivas P. Veeranki, Bill T. Ameredes, William J. Calhoun; "Diagnosis and Management of Asthma in Adults - A Review"; JAMA (2017); 318(3): 279-290 PMID : 28719697 ~ Satyanand Tyagi, Mahendra Singh, Dashrath Singh, Indu Yadav, Sunil Singh and Mohd Hashim Mansoori; "Anti-Asthmatic Potential of Flacourtia indica Merr"; African J. Basic & Appl. Sci. (2011); 3(5): 201-204 PMID : ~ Chen S; "Natural products triggering biological targets - a review of the anti-inflammatory phytochemicals targeting the arachidonic acid pathway in allergy asthma and rheumatoid arthritis."; Curr Drug Targets (2011); 12(3): 288-301 PMID : 20955151 ~ Park HS, Kim SR, Kim JO and Lee YC; "The roles of phytochemicals in bronchial asthma"; Molecules (2010); 15(10): 6810-34 PMID : 20924320 ~ Chandra Prakash Kala; "Aboriginal uses and management of ethnobotanical species in deciduous forests of Chhattisgarh state in India"; Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine (2009); 5(20): 1-9 PMID : ~ Omolola Temitope Fatokun, Tosin Ejiro Wojuola, Kevwe Benefit Esievo and Oluyemisi Folashade Kunle; "Medicinal plants used in the management of Asthma: A review"; EJPMR (2016); 3(7): 82-92 PMID : ~ Balaji Kasirajan, Rajadurai Maruthamuthu, Vidhya Gopalakrishnan, Krithika Arumugam, Hudson Asirvatham, Vidya Murali, Ramya Mohandass and Anusha Bhaskar; "A database for medicinal plants used in treatment of asthma"; Bioinformation (2007); 2(3): 105-106 PMID : ~ J. Lenin Bapuji and S. Venkat Ratnam; "Traditional Uses of Some Medicinal Plants by tribals of Gangaraju Madugula Mandal of Visakhapatnam District, Andhra Pradesh"; Ethnobotanical Leaflets (2009); 13: 388-98 PMID : ~ Dhore MA and Joshi PA; "Flora of Melghat Tiger Reserve"; Directorate, Project Tiger, Melghat (1988); PMID : ~ Omesh Bajpai, Jitendra Pandey and Lal Babu Chaudhary; "Ethnomedicinal Uses of Tree Species by Tharu Tribes in the Himalayan Terai Region of India"; Research Journal of Medicinal Plant (2016); 10(1): 19-41 PMID :

Kingdom	: Plantae - Plants
Phylum	: Tracheophyta
Subkingdom	: Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision	: Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division	: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class	: Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass	: Dilleniidae
Order	: Violales
Family	: Flacourtiaceae (Flacourtia family)
Genus	: Flacourtia Comm. ex L'HÃƒÂ©r. - flacourtia
Species	: Flacourtia indica (Burm. f.) Merr.