Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MT027 : Semecarpus anacardium L.

Plant Category : Tree

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : 96

Synonym : Anacardium latifolium Lam.; Anacardium longifolium Lam.; Anacardium officinale Pritz.; Anacardium officinarum Gaertn.; Anacardium orientale Auct. ex Steud.; Anacardium solitarium Stokes.; Cassuvium longifolium (Lam.) Kuntze.; Semecarpus cuneifolia Roxb.; Semecarpus latifolia Pers.;

Plant Common Name : Bhilawa, Biba, K- Choso, Marking Nut, dhobi nut tree, Indian marking nut tree, Malacca bean, marany nut, marsh nut, oriental cashew nut, varnish tree • Hindi: bhilawan, billar • Marathi: bhallataka, bhillava, bibba • Tamil: cen-kottai, compalam, kalakam, kavaka, kitta-k-kani-k-kottai • Malayalam: alakuceer, ceenkkuru, theenkotta • Telugu: bhallatamu, jidimamidichettu • Kannada: geru, gerannina mara • Bengali: bhallata, bhallataka • Oriya: bhollataki, bonebhalia • Konkani: amberi, bibba • Urdu: baladur, bhilavan, billar • Assamese: bhala • Gujarati: bhilamo, bhilamu • Sanskrit: ahvala, arshastah, arudhkh, bhallatakah, vahnih, vishasya • Nepali: bhalaayo

Plant Family : Anacardiaceae

Description : Trees, to 12 m high, bark 5-6 mm thick, grey to greyish-brown with tessellate scales, furrows longitudinal and horizontal; blaze dull red; exudation acrid. Leaves simple, alternate, crowded at end of branchlets, estipulate; petiole 20-45 mm long, stout, pubescent; lamina 15-50 x 10-15 cm, obovate-oblong, elliptic-oblong or obovate, base acute, obtuse, round or truncate, apex obtuse, round or emarginate, margin entire, glabrous above, puberulent and glaucous beneath, coriaceous; lateral nerves 10-20 pairs, parallel, prominent; intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers polygamous, greenish-yellow, 6-8 mm across, in terminal pubescent panicles; calyx lobes 5, ovate, margin ciliate, imbricate, deciduous; petals 5, imbricate; disc broad, annular, villous; stamens 5 inserted below the disc; filaments filiform, glabrous, in male flowers as long as or longer than petals, in female flowers shorter than petals; anthers oblong; ovary superior, densely villous, 1-celled, ovule pendulous from a basal funicle; styles 3, divergent. Fruit a drupe, 2-5 cm long, fleshy, purplish-black, seated on an orange hypocarp as long as the drupe, pericarp rich in corrosive resinous juice; seed pendulous.

Plant Location in Melghat : Dhargad, Bori

Medicinal Use / Activity : Ripe fruits are aphrodisiac, digestive and stimulant. A paste or juice of the fruit is used in the treatment of bronchitis, dysentery, fever, asthma and haemorrhoids. The pure black acrid juice obtained from the fruits is used externally to remove rheumatic pains, aches and sprains. A little of the oil is rubbed over the parts affected - it is an efficacious remedy except in such constitutions as are subject to inflammations and swellings. Mixed with garlic and other substances, the juice is used in the treatment of almost every sort of venereal complaint. The bark is mildly astringent. A paste of the seed, mixed with honey, is used in the treatment of gastric troubles. The juice of the seeds is applied externally in the treatment of ringworm and severely chapped feet. The juice of the seeds has been tested as a possible anti-cancer. An oil obtained from the seeds is used to treat skin eruptions. The juice of the root is considered to be effective in causing sterility in women. The latex is applied externally in the treatment of headaches, skin diseases and scabies. The fruit and nut extract shows various activities like antiatherogenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant, anti-microbial, anti-reproductive, CNS stimulant, hypoglycemic, anticarcinogenic and hair growth promoter.

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: Bhilwanol; ursuhenol; anacardoside; semecarpetin; nallaflavanone; jeediflavanone; semecarpuflavanone; galluflavanone; anacarduflavone; mono-olefin I; diolefin II; bhilawanol-A; bhilawanol-B; semicarpol; anacardic acid; tetrahydrobustaflavone; O-trimethyl biflavanone A1; O-trimethyl biflavanone A2; O-tetramethyl bifl avanone A1; O-hexamethyl bichalcone A; O-dimethyl biflavanone B; O-heptamethyl bichalcone B1; O-hexamethyl bichalcone B2;

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (1):

Flavone;

Plant's Current Status : Common

Plant's Cross Database Reference : 259142

Reference : Dhore M. A. (1984) The flora of melghat tiger reserve - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249908/ - http://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Marking%20Nut.html - https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/231099 - http://tropical.theferns.info/viewtropical.php?id=Semecarpus+anacardium

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

~ Mansoria Poornima, Sharma Anita, Gothecha Vinod Kumar; "Semecarpus anacardium: A Review"; IAMJ (2013); 1(6): 69-76 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

~ Santosh Kumar Singh, Jay Ram Patel, Prashant Kumar Dubey and Sonia Thakur; "A review on anti-asthmatic activity of traditional medicinal plants"; IJPSR (2014); 5(10): 4109-4116 PMID :

~ 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 :

~ 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 :

~ S.D. Jagtap, S.S. Deokule and S.V. Bhosle; "Some unique ethnomedicinal uses of plants used by the Korku tribe of Amravati district of Maharashtra, India"; Journal of Ethnopharmacology (2006); 107: 463-469 PMID :

~ Rajendra Prasad Bharti, Abhilasha shrivastava, Jagjeevan Ram Choudhary, Asha Tiwari and N. K. Soni; "Ethno Medicinal Plants used by Tribal Communities in Vindhya region of Rewa and Sidhi District of Madhya Pradesh, India"; IOSR Journal of Pharmacy and Biological Sciences (2013); 8(6): 23-28 PMID :

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass : Rosidae
Order : Sapindales
Family : Anacardiaceae - Sumac family
Genus : Semecarpus L. f. - semecarpus
Species : Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree

Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree
Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree
Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree
Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree
Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree
Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree
Semecarpus anacardium L. f. - markingnut tree