Scientific name – Gmelina arborea
Family – Verbinaceae
Gmelina arborea, (in English beechwood , gmelina, goomar teak, Kashmir tree, Malay beechwood, white teak, Yamane , locally known as gamhar, is a fast-growing deciduous tree in the family Verbinaceae.
Gmelina arborea grows naturally throughout India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and in southern provinces of China. It is found at altitudes from sea level to 1,500 metres (5,000 ft).[1] Since the 1960s, it has been introduced extensively as fast-growing timber trees in Brazil, Gambia, Honduras, Ivory Coast, Malaysia, Malawi, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Sierra Leone. It is also planted in gardens and avenues.
It is a moderately deciduous tree with straight trunk spreading branches, which form large shady crown with whitish grey corky lenticellate bark, exfoliating in thin and numerous flakes.
It has a clear bole of 6.0-9.0 meter, and a girth 1.5-2.5m. Branchlets and young parts are clothed with fine white mealy pubescence. Leaves are simple, opposite, broadly ovate, cordate, glandular, glabrous above when mature and fulvous-tomentose beneath.
It attains its largest dimension in the mixed forests of moist region as in the eastern sub Himalayan track, Assam and elsewhere in south India.
Properties-
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Ayurvedic Properties
Rasa : madhura, Kashaya, tikta
Guna : guru
Virya : ushna
Vipaka : katu
Karma: Deepana (Appetizer), paachana (Digestive), medhya, bhedana, shosha, vedanasthapana, anulomana, snehana, shothahara.
Pharmacological Action: The root and bark of Gmelina arborea are stomachic, galactagogue laxative and anthelmintic; improve appetite, useful in hallucination, piles, abdominal pains, burning sensations, fevers, ‘tridosha’ and urinary discharge
Chemical composition –
Lignans, such as 6″ – bromo – isoarboreol, 4-hydroxysesamin, 4,8-dihydroxysesamin, 1,4- dihydroxysesamin (gummadiol), 2-piperonyl-3-hydroxymethyl-4-(α-hydroxy-3,4- methylenedioxybenzyl)-4-hydroxytetrahydrofuran and the 4-O-glucoside of 4- epigummadiol, can be isolated from the heartwood of Gmelina arborea.The parent compounds are arboreol or gmelanone. Umbelliferone 7-apiosylglucoside can be isolated from the root.
Five constituents, isolated from the heartwood of G. arborea, (+)-7′-O-ethyl arboreol, (+)- paulownin, (+)-gmelinol, (+)-epieudesmin and (−)-β-sitosterol, show antifungal activity against Trametes versicolor.
Benefits –