ADENANTHERA PAVONINA

ADENANTHERA PAVONINA

Common name: Red Sandalwood, Coral-wood, Peacock flower fence, Red beadtree • Hindi: रक्तचंदन Rakt chandan, बड़ी गुम्ची Badi gumchi • Marathi: थोरला गुंज Thorla goonj • Tamil: Ani kundamani, Manjadi • Malayalam: Sem, Manchadi • Telugu: Gurivenda, Enugaguruginji • Kannada: Ane golaganji • Bengali: Ranjana • Oriya: Sokakainjo • Konkani: Odlygunji • Assamese: Chandan • Gujarati: બડી ગુમ્ચી Badigumchi • Sanskrit: Ksharaka, kunchandana, Tamraka

Botanical name: Adenanthera pavonina  

 Family: Mimosaceae (Touch-me-not family)

Synonyms: Adenanthera gersenii, Adenanthera polita, Corallaria parvifolia

Introduction :- Red Bead Tree is a timber tree. This plant is found in the wild in India. Leaves are compound bipinnate, green when young, turning yellow when old. The small, yellowish flower grows in dense drooping rat-tail flower heads, almost like cat-tail flower-heads. Fruits are curved, hanging, green pods that turn brown, coil up and split open as they ripen to reveal small bright red seeds.These attractive seeds have been used as beads in jewellery, leis and rosaries. They were also used in ancient India for weighing gold. The seeds are curiously similar in weight. Four seeds make up about one gramme. Children love the hard red seeds and few can resist collecting the brightly coloured seeds usually littered under the tree. The young leaves can be cooked and eaten. the wood is extremely hard and used in boat-building and making furniture. 

Chemical constituents

Adenanthera pavonina is a source of aliphatic natural products (O-acetylethanolamine and 1-octacosanol), carbohydrate (galactitol), simple aromatic natural products (2,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid), flavonoids (ampelopsin, butein, dihydrorobinetin, and robinetin), terpenoids (echinocystic acid and oleanolic acid), steroids (daucosterol, β-sitosterol, and stigmasterol), amino acids and peptides (2-amino-4-ethylidenepentanedioic acid and γ-methyleneglutamine), and alkaloids (O-acetylethanolamine and 1H-imidazole)
Medicinal uses:  A red powder made from the wood is also used as an antiseptic paste. In Ancient Indian medicine, the ground seeds are used to treat boils and inflammations. A decoction of the leaves is used to treat gout and rheumatism. The bark was used to wash hair.