CORDIA DICHOTOMA

Common name: Indian cherry, Clammy cherry, Fragrant manjack • Assamese: goborhut, bahubara •Bengali: Bahubara, Boch • Hindi: लसोड़ा Lasora • Khasi: Dieng mong • Malayalam: Naruvari • Manipuri: Lamkelaba • Marathi: Shelu • Mizo: Muk • Gujarati: Vad gundo • Kannada: Doducallu • Sanskrit: Bahuvarah • Tamil: naruvili, citam, naruvali • Telugu: bankanakkera, chinna-nakkeru, botgiri

Botanical name: Cordia dichotoma   

Family: Boraginaceae (forget-me-not family)

Geographical distribution

It occurs nearly throughout India.

Introduction: Indian cherry is a small to moderate-sized deciduous tree with a short bole and spreading crown. The stem bark is greyish brown, smooth or longitudinally wrinkled. Flowers are short-stalked, bisexual and white in colour, appear in loose corymbose cymes. The flowers open only at night. The fruit is a yellow or pinkish-yellow shining globose or ovoid drupe seated in a saucer-like enlarged calyx. It turns black on ripening and the pulp gets viscid. Indian cherry grows in the sub-Himalayan tract and outer ranges, ascending up to about 1500 m elevation. It is found in a variety of forests ranging from the dry deciduous forests of Rajasthan to the moist deciduous forests of Western Ghats and tidal forests in Myanmar. In Maharashtra, it grows in moist monsoon forest also.

Chemical Constituents: Several chemicals have been identified from seeds of C. dichotoma. The seed contains α-amyrins, betulin, octacosanol, lupeol-3rhamnoside, β-sitosterol, β-sitosterol-3glucoside, hentricontanol, hentricontane, taxifolin-3-5-dirhamnoside, hesperitin-7-rhamnoside and fatty acids such as palmitic acid, stearic acid, arachidic acid, behenic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid. Four flavonoid glycosides (robinin, rutin, rutoside, datiscoside and hesperidin), a flavonoid aglycone (dihydrorobinetin) and 2 phenolic derivatives (chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid) were isolated from seeds. The significant anti-inflammatory activity of seeds is because of α-amyrins and taxifolin-3-5-dirhamnoside (71.4%, 67.8% respectively). The seeds also contain fatty acids and flavonoids.

Medicinal Uses: antidiabetic, antiulcer, anti-inflammatory, immune-modulator and analgesic activity.

Therapeutic uses

The bark is a mild tonic and astringent.

Folk medicinal

The juice of bark mixed with cocoanut milk is given to relieve colicky pain. The berries are mucilaginous, they are useful as a demulcent; they are given in cough and diseases of the chest, uterus, urethra etc; as a laxative of 10-12 gm. of the pulp of the fruit are given.

Flowers : January-April Fruits : May-June