BAUHINIA VARIEGATA LINN.

Common name: Buddhist Bauhinia, White orchid tree, White Mountain Ebony • Hindi: सफ़ेद कचनार Kachnar • Manipuri: চিঙথ্ৰাও অঙৌবা Chingthrao angauba • Marathi: Kovidara • Tamil: Mandarai • Malayalam: മന്ദരമ് Mandaram • Bengali: কংচন Kanchan • Sanskrit: Kovidara

Botanical name: Bauhinia variegata var. candida   

Family: Caesalpiniaceae (Gulmohar family)

Synonyms: Bauhinia alba, Bauhinia variegata var. alboflava

Geographical distribution

The plant occurs throughout India. It is mostly grown in gardens and along roadsides.

Introduction: Buddhist Bauhinia is a sensational orchid tree that shows off masses of white flowers winter through spring, then some more in the summer as well. What more, the flowers are sweetly scented as well. The fast-growing Buddhist Bauhinia grows 20-40 feet in height with a 20-25 ft spread, the slender trunks topped with arching branches clothed in large, two-lobed, deciduous leaves. In fall, before the leaves drop, white orchid-tree is festooned with many showy and delightfully fragrant, five-inch-wide, white, orchid-shaped blossoms, with lemon-green markings. These flowers appear on the trees from January to April and are a beautiful sight to see. The flowers are followed by 12-inch-long, slender, brown, flat seedpods.The flower contains hentriacontene, octacosanol, reducing sugars, stigmasterol. The tree also yields gum; bark tannin; seeds yield fatty oil.

Type:  Tree

Chemical constituents :  Kachnar is a rich source of flavonoids such as kaempferol and quercetin and their derivatives. It also contains other bioactive compounds such as beta sitosterol, lupeol, tannins, saponins and reducing sugars.

Therapeutic uses

The bark is diuretic, laxative, anthelmintic, antiarthritis, astringent, expectorant and tonic. Useful in cough, diarrhoea, dyspepsia, internal worms, leprosy, lymphatic gland trouble, menorrhagia, piles, scrofula, skin diseases, sore-throat and ulcers. The bark is anti-inflammatory useful in skin diseases, ulcers and scrofula. Dried buds are used in dysentery, piles and worms. Roots are used as antidote to snake poisoning. Decoction of roots is used in dyspepsia.

Folk medicinal uses

An emulsion of the bark made with rice water is given with a little ginger in scrofulous enlargement of the gland of the neck. A poultice of the bark, flowers and roots made with rice water is applied to promote suppuration. A decoction of the root is valuable drink for reducing corpulence.

Preparations

Kanchnar-guggulu, Kanchnaradi-kwath, Kanchan-gudika.

Flowers : February-April Fruits : July-October

NOTE : Bauhinia purpurea Linn. have the same Folk medicinal uses as of Bauhinia

variegata Linn.