Wrightia tinctoria (Roxb.) R. Br.

ദന്തപാല

Family : APOCYNACEAE

Synonym :

Nerium tinctorium Roxb.

Common Names : Adukomba, Dhanthappala, Irumpala, Kambippala, Kotakappala, Neelappala, Thattan-chavana, Thinnamppala, Thondappala, Vettupala, Pala indigo, Sweet indrajao

Flowering Period : February-November

Distribution : India, Myanmar

Habitat : Moist and dry deciduous forests, also in the plains

Uses : The sap has an interesting preservative property since if a few drops of sap are added to milk, the milk will remain fresh without the necessity of keeping it on ice, the taste remaining unaltered. The dried and powdered bark is rubbed over the body in the treatment of dropsy. Seeds are used in the treatment of fevers, diarrhoea and dysentery, intestinal worms. The leaves are used to relieve toothache when chewed with salt. The leaves and roots are pounded in water for treatment of fever. The bark and leaves are used to treat psoriasis, stomach pains, toothache, and dysentery. The milky juice is used to stop bleeding. The seeds, roots and leaves furnish an indigo-yielding glucoside used for dyeing cloth. The cream-coloured latex has a rubber content varying from 2 - 28% that can be exploited commercially. The white wood is light in weight, soft and fine-textured. Of high quality, it is suitable for carving and turnery.

Key Characters :

Deciduous trees; upto 15 m; bark 8-10 mm thick, grey, smooth; outer layer thin, inner layer thick, brittle, creamy; latex milky white. Leaves simple, opposite, distichous, 3.5-11 x 2-4 cm, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-ovate, apex acuminate or caudate acuminate, base acute, margin entire, glabrous, glaucous beneath, chartaceous; petiole 2-5 mm long, stout, glabrous; lateral nerves 5-10 pairs, slender, arched, pinnate, prominent, intercostae reticulate. Flower bisexual, white, scented, in terminal cymes appearing along with new leaves; pedicel 1.5 mm long, bracts 2, minute. Calyx lobes 5, with membranous margin, 2 mm, ovate, obtuse, ciliate, glandular inside. Corolla salver shaped, lobes 5, broad lobes 12 x 5 mm, oblong, obtuse, throat with 1-2 series of erect, fimbriate corona scales, tube 1.5-2 mm. Stamens 5, inserted on the mouth of the tube, anthers sagitate, spurred at base, conniving and adhering to the stigma; disc absent. Carpels 2, free; ovules many; style filiform, stigma ovoid, usually with a toothed basal ring. Fruit of 2 follicular mericarps, 15-45 cm long, slender, smooth, green, cylindric, cohering at the tip; seed 16 mm long, black, commate at one end.