Cananga odorata (Lam.) Hook. f. & Thoms. 

കാട്ടുചെമ്പകം

Family : ANNONACEAE

Synonym : Canangium odoratum (Lam.) Baill. ex King

Common Names : Kattuchempakam, Kanangamaram, Langilangi, Madana, Pachachempakam, Langilangi, Maramar, Perfume Tree, Ylang ylang

Flowering Period : December-May

Distribution : Myanmar to Australia and New Zealand, through Malesia

Habitat : Grown as ornamental plant

Uses : The essential oil from the flowers is used by the food industry, especially in peach and apricot flavourings. It is used in candies, icings, baked goods, soft drinks and chewing gum. The flowers, and the essential oil obtained from them, are antipruritic, antifungal, antiseptic and sedative, relieving tension, lowering blood pressure and reducing fever. The dried flowers are used in the treatment of malaria and the fresh flowers are made into a paste for treating asthma. The essential oil is important in aromatherapy, where it is used in the treatment of tachycardia, rapid breathing, hypertension, gastrointestinal infections and psycho-sexual complaints. Two types of essential oil are obtained from the flowers, both of which are used to supply the dominant odour note of many perfumes. The wood is used locally for general construction, turnery and making canoes, and is also used for making boxes, tea chests and plywood.

Key Characters :

Trees, 15-20 m tall; bole straight, bark greyish-white, blaze creamy yellow, branches spreading, minutely puberulous with greyish, crispate, mostly fascicled hairs when young, glabrate with age. Leaves simple, alternate, distichous, estipulate; petiole 10-20 mm long, slender, grooved above, minutely puberulous; lamina 9-21 x 4-9 cm, oblong, elliptic, ovate or elliptic-lanceolate; base obtuse or oblique; apex acuminate or acute; margin entire, undulate, glabrous, coriaceous; lateral nerves 8-11 pairs, pinnate, prominent; intercostae scalariform, obscure. Flowers bisexual, yellowish-green, fragrant, to 6 cm across, several in peduncled, axillary cymes; bracts subulate, 1-2 mm long, puberulous on both sides, cauducous; pedicel 2-5 cm long, slender; sepals 3, 4-6 mm long, ovate, pubescent, reflexed, shortly connate at base; petals 6 (3 + 3), 3.5-5 x 0.5-1.5 cm, green, turning yellow, linear or lanceolate, valvate, puberulous; inner ones smaller, subequal; torus some what convex; stamens many, closely arranged, to 3.5 mm, connectives broadly appendaged, acute, concealing anthers; carpels many, glabrous at the very base, ovules many attached to the suture, stylules slender, terminated by a club-shaped stigma. Fruit aggregate of berry, 3-15 in a cluster, 1-15 x 0.5-1 cm, globose, glabrous, pulpy, black; seeds 2-12, transversely compressed, yellowish-brown.