Botanical Name Plant's Common Name Plant Family   

   MT099 : Sapindus laurifolius Vahl

Plant Category : Tree

Melghat's Flora's Serial No. :

Synonym : Sapindus trifoliatus;

Plant Common Name : South India Soapnut, three-leaf soapberry, trijugate-leaved sop-nut • Hindi: phenil, risht, rishtak • Manipuri: Kekru • Marathi: phenil, rinthi, ritha • Tamil: punalai, punthi, puvanti • Malayalam: cavakkaay, pasakkottamaram, uruvanchi • Telugu: kunkuduchettu, phenilamu • Kannada: amtalakaayi, norekaayi, togate mara • Bengali: Ritha • Oriya: Ritha • Konkani: ritha • Urdu: Phenil, Reetha • Assamese: aritha • Gujarati: arithi, aritho, arithu • Sanskrit: hrishtah, phenaka, phenil, rishtah, rishtak, rita, sarishta, urdhvashodhanah

Plant Family : SAPINDACEAE

Description : A large tree. Leaves 15-30 cm long; leaflets sub-sessile, 2-3 pairs, 8-18 cm long, 5-7.5 cm broad, elliptic-lanceolate, glabrous, entire, acute, base slightly oblique, terminal pair longest. Flowers greenish-white, in terminal, slightly pubescent panicles; bract 1; bracteoles 2, 1 mm long, subulate, pubescent; pedicel 3 mm long, pubescent. Sepals 5, slightly connate at the base, 4-5 mm long, ovate-oblong, pubescent. Petals 5, free, 5-6 mm long, lanceolate-ovate, clawed, hispid. Disc 5-lobed, concave hirsute. Stamens 8, free; filaments 2-3 mm long, villous; anthers 1.5-2 mm long, basifixed, api¬culate. Ovary 3-locular, 3-lobed, ovoid, c. 3 mm long, tomentose, with 1 ovule in each locule; style 1.5 mm long. Fruit 2-3 lobed, 1.3-2 cm long, pubescent when young, hard and glabrous when mature. Seed 1 in each cell, 6-9 mm long, black. Flowering: November-January.

Plant Location in Melghat : Near villages

Medicinal Use / Activity : Anthelmintic; astringent; emetic; rheumatism; gout;

Plant's Phytochemicals : COMPOUNDS: alpha-hederin; emarginatoside C; Sapindic acid; Arachidic acid; Docosanoic acid; emarginatoside B; Hederagenin; kaempferol; Kaempferol 3-O-beta-D-galactoside; Octadecanoate; OLEANOLIC ACID; oleic acid; palmitic acid; quercetin; Sapindoside B; Sapindoside C;

ACTIVE COMPOUNDS (5):

Quercetin;

Kaempferol;

Oleanolic Acid;

Palmitic acid;

Hederagenin;

Plant's Current Status :

Plant's Cross Database Reference : 259142

Reference : Prabha Y. Bhogaonkar and Pankaj A. Dhole; "Checklist of Flora of Melghat"; Chief Conservator of Forest & Field Director, Melghat Tiger Project, Camp, Amravati (2018 - 2019); Book

Reference : ~ Fatema Nasrin and Md. Lukman Hakim; "In vivo antidiarrheal study of ethanolic extracts of Mikania cordata and Litsea monopetala leaves "; Bangladesh J Pharmacol (2015); 10: 562-565 PMID :

~ Ali Ahmmad, Md. Torequl Islam*, Irin Sultana, Ayesha Mahmood, Jasmin Akther Hossain, Zilly Homa, Mohammed Ibrahim and M. Mohi Uddin Chowdhury; "Pharmacological and Phytochemical Screening of Ethanol Extract of Litsea monopetala (Roxb.) Pers."; IOSR Journal of Pharmacy (2012); 2(3): 398-402 PMID :

~ Prabha Y. Bhogaonkar and Pankaj A. Dhole; "Checklist of Flora of Melghat"; Chief Conservator of Forest & Field Director, Melghat Tiger Project, Camp, Amravati (2018 - 2019); Book PMID :

Kingdom : Plantae - Plants
Phylum : Tracheophyta
Subkingdom : Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision : Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division : Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class : Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Subclass :
Order : Sapindales
Family : Sapindaceae
Genus : Sapindus
Species : Sapindus laurifolius Vahl

Sapindus laurifolius Vahl
Sapindus laurifolius Vahl