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NAGAKESAR It
is a tall tree reaching up to 100 feet tall. It is native to
tropical
Sri Lanka but also cultivated in
Assam,
southern
Nepal,
Indochina,
and the Malay Peninsula.It
is cultivated basically for its timber,foilage and fragrant
flower. It is the National tree of
Sri Lanka. The oldest man-made forest in Sri Lanka, the National
Ironwood Forest is dominated by this tree. And it is the only
ironwood forest in the dry zone with wet zone vegetation.
Its
resin
is slightly poisonous, but many parts have medicinal properties.
It enhances the complexion. It leads to fragility transparency
to the skin. The flowers are acrid, anodyne, digestive,
constipating, stomachache. They are useful in conditions like
asthma, leprosy, cough, fever, vomiting and impotency. The seed
oil is considered to be very useful in conditions like vata and
skin diseases. Dried flowers are used for bleeding hemorrhoids
and dysentery with mucus. Fresh flowers are useful remedy for
itching, nausea, erysipelas, bleeding piles, metrorrhagea,
menorrhagea, excessive thirst, and sweating]. Oil
from the seeds is used for sores, scabies, wounds, and
rheumatism.
It has digestant, anti poisonous, antimicrobial,
anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and anthelmintic activity. It is
used in fever, itching, nausea, leprosy, skin disorders,
erysipelas, bleeding piles, metrorrhagea, menorrhagea, excessive
thirst, and sweating.
The essential oil has antimicrobial and anthelmintic activity.
Recently it has been shown that calophyllolide is effective in
reducing the increased capillary permeability induced in mice by
iiistamine, 5-HT and bradykinin. Main use of stamen has been
described for controlling bleeding in menorrhagia and piles.In a
study of, the plant to assess its putative sex-steroidal
activity, no oestrogenic or progestational activity was found.
Its use in menorrhagia may he due to its action on capillaries.
Oil is used to treat skin diseases and its local application is
also recommended in rheumatism. The plant has been widely used
in India.
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