Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MT054 : Careya arborea Roxb.

Plant Category : Tree

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. : 196

Synonym : Barringtonia arborea (Roxb.) F.Muell.; Careya sphaerica Roxb.; Cumbia coneanae Buch.-Ham.; Careya venenata Oken; Careya orbiculata Miers;

Plant Common Name : Kumbhi, Kumbh, Wild Guava, Ceylon Oak, Patana Oak, Aima, Karekku, Puta-tanni-maram,

Plant Family : Lecythidaceae

Description : Wild Guava is a medium sized deciduous tree, up to 20 m tall, the leaves of which turn red in the cold season. It is the Kumbhi of Sanskrit writers, and appear to have been so named on account of the hollow on the top of the fruit giving it somewhat the appearance of a water-pot. Wild pigs are very fond of the bark, and that it is used by hunters to attract them. An astringent gum exudes from the fruit and stem, and the bark is made into coarse cordage. The Tamil name Puta-tanni-maram signifies ”water- bark-tree,” in allusion to the exudation trickling down the bark in dry weather. Bark surface flaking in thin strips, fissured, dark grey; crown spreading. Leaves arranged spirally, often clustered at the apices of twigs, simple, broadly obovate, tapering at base, margin toothed, stipules small, caducous. Flowers in an erect raceme at the end of branches. Flowers are large, white. Sepals are 4, petals 4, free. Stamens are many, connate at base; disk annular; ovary inferior, 4-5-locular with many ovules in 2 rows per cell, style 1. Fruit a large, many-seeded drupe, globose to depressed globose, crowned by the persistent sepals. Seedling with hypogeal germination; cotyledons absent (seed containing a swollen hypocotyl); shoot with scales at the first few nodes.

Plant Location in Melghat : Mainly seen on Chikhaldara & Vairat

Medicinal Use / Activity : Cough, Dental Problems, The bark of the tree and the sepals of the flowers are well-known Indian remedies, and are valued on account of their astringent and mucilaginous properties, being administered internally in coughs and colds and applied externally as an embrocation. Traditionally used in the treatment of tumours, bronchitis, skin disease, epileptic fits, astringents, anti-dote to snake-venom, abscesses, boil and ulcer. Fruits are used as decoction to promote digestion. Leaves and flowers are used in the form of paste to cure several skin diseases. It is also used as remedy for Diarrhea, dysentery with bloody stools and ear pain. Leaf paste and pulp used as poultice rapidly heals ulcers and root is used for the treatment of tuberculosis and skeletal fractures. cytotoxic activity, antitumor effect, N-nitrosodiethylamine induced hepatocarcinogenesis, CNS depressant, anticoagulant and anti-oxidant activity

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: Gallic acid; Quercetin 3-O-glucopyranoside; Kaempferol 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside; kaempferol 3-O-glucopyranoside; alpha-spinasterone; alpha-spinasterol; 16 desoxy barringtogenol C; barringtogenol C; barringtogenol D; lactone careyagenolide; maslinic acid; ursolic acid; arborenin; desacylescin III; taraxerol; ellagic acid; hexacosanol; taraxerol acetate; quercitin; Beta-sitosterol; careaborin;

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (9):

Beta-sitosterol;

Quercetin;

Kaempferol;

Ursolic Acid;

Kaempferol 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside;

Maslinic Acid;

alpha-Spinasterol;

Ellagic acid;

Gallic Acid;

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/PMC3609314/ - http://www.phytopharmajournal.com/Vol5_Issue1_06.pdf

Reference : ~ 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 :

~ 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 :

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass :
Order : Ericales
Family : Lecythidaceae
Genus : Careya
Species : Careya arborea Roxb.

Careya arborea Roxb.
Careya arborea Roxb.
Careya arborea Roxb.
Careya arborea Roxb.
Careya arborea Roxb.
Careya arborea Roxb.
Careya arborea Roxb.