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Medicinal Plant details |
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| Sanskrit Name |
Madhuk (WOA, 1998). |
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| Common name in English |
Madhuka, Mahua tree, Illipe butter |
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| Botanical Name |
Madhuca indica Gmelin.
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| Parts Used |
Flower, Leaves |
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| Human Medicinal Usage |
The plant is considered in Ayurveda as acrid; cooling, fattening, aphrodisiac anthelmintic; cures biliousness, burning sensation, leprosy, ulcers, fatigue; causes "Kapha"; heals wounds; used in tonic; cures blood diseases, thirst, bronchitis properties. Milky juice hastens suppuration. In Yunani medicine system, flowers are considered sweet, having properties like cooling, tonic and nutritive along with galactagogue, aphrodisiac, expectorant, carminative etc. The Oil is emollient. Bark decoction is astringent and tonic; used as remedy for rheumatic affection; a cure for itch.
Dried flowers are used as fomentation in orchitis for their sedative effect; honey from flowers is used in the treatment of eye diseases. Flowers are used for making local wine.The distillation product of flowers gives a spirit which has healing, astringent, tonic, and appetiser properties (Sushruta). Flowers mixed with milk are useful in impotence due to general debility. Leaves boiled in water are used as a good stimulant embrocation. Smoke produced after burning the cake is reported to kill insects and rats. Used as sweet, some ethnic food like chapati and medicine.
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| Other Usage |
Madhuca latifolia flowers are known as energy rich material and used as animal as well as human feed (Annonymous, 1992). |
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| Synonyms |
Madhuca latifolia Roxb., Bassia latifolia Roxb.
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| Family |
Sapotaceae |
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| Description |
A medium to large sized tree. Stem: usually with short, bole and large, rounded crown; bark dark coloured or grey, cracked. Leaf: clustered near the ends of branches, elliptic or elliptic oblong, 7.5-23.0 x 3.8-11.5 cm, coriaceous, pubescent when young, almost glabrous when mature. Flower: small, fleshy, cream-coloured, sweet-scented, in dense fascicles near the ends of branches. Fruit: ovoid, up to 5 cm long, greenish, truning reddish-yellow or orange when ripe, 1-4-seeded. Seed: 2.5-3.6 cm long, brown, ovoid, smooth, shining. Fl. & Fr.: Feb-Aug. (WOA, 1998).
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| Common Name in India |
Mahwa, Maul, Mahula (Bangali); Mabuda (Gujarati); Mahua, Moha (Hindi); Ippe (Kannada); Poonam, Ilupa (Malayalam); Mahula, Moha (Oriya); Illupei, Elupa (Tamil); Ippa (Telugu) (WOA, 1998). |
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| Habitat |
Deciduous forests; prefer dry sandy and roky soils; thrives in Deccan trap (WOA, 1998).
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| Rainfall |
Plant grows in moderate rainfall areas. |
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| Soil (Physical/Chemical) |
The pH ranges from 5-9.
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| Regional Distribution |
Forests of Central India ranging from Madhya Pradesh to Orissa, W. Bengal to the Western Ghats and Kumaun Tarai (WOA, 1998).
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| Global Distribution |
India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam.
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| Harvest |
The first harvesting is done after 90 days of planting, when the crop starts flowering. While harvesting about 10 cm of shoot above the ground level is left for further growth. The subsequent harvests can be carried out after 45 days of the first harvest. On an average about 4-5 harvests are taken annually. Crop can be retained up to seven cuttings under good management. After every harvest, the crop is applied with nitrogenous fertilizers preferable urea to induce more of vegetative growth. In order to get oil of export quality, first harvest should be done only after 90 days after planting. The oil content in fresh leaves of marjoram ranges from 0.3 to 0.5 per cent. Dried plant gives upto 1 per cent oil. Marjoram may yield about 16,000 to 18,000 kg of fresh herbage per hectare. It may yield about 35-40 kg oil by steam distillation with the oil recovery of 0.3 to 0.4 percent on fresh weight basis.
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| Pests / Diseases |
Major insect of the plant is Termite. The major disease is Leaf rust. To control termites apply 25 kg of 5% Heptachlor dust to soil. Leaf rust can be controlled by spraying crop with 0.2 % Blitox or Contaf 10ml/ 10 l at weekly intervals.
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| Chemical composition |
Leaves and seeds contain glucoside saponin with a trace of alkaloid. A new saponin - bassianin isolated from leaves which on hyrolysis yielded bassic acid, glucose, arabinose, xylose and rhamnose; beta-sitosterol -beta-D-glucoside, stigmasterol, n-hexacosanol and 3beta-caroxyolean-12-en-28-ol. beta-carotene, n-octacosanol, stiosterol, its beta-D-glucoside, 3beta-palmitoxyolean-12-en-28-ol, oleanolic acid, quercetin, eryhrodiol and palmitic acid isolated from leaves; along with myricetin and its 3-O-L-rhamnoside; The saponins A and B isolated from seeds shows quercetin, myricetin -3-O-L-rhamnoside and quercetin.
Soil bacterial hydrolysis of spaonins of seed kernels yields protobassic acid and prosapogenol. Mi-saponin A and Mi-saponin B isolated from seeds and characterised as 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-28-O-[alfa-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1->3)-beta-D-xylopyranosly (1->4)-alfa-L-rhamnopyranosyl(1->2)-alfa-L-arabinopyranosyl]- protobassic acid and 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-28-O-[3-O-beta-D-apio-D-furancnsyl-4-O-(alfa-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1->3)-beta-D-xylopyranosyl)-alfa-L-rhamnopyranosyl(->2)-alfa-L-arabinopyranosyl]-protobassic acid respectively. Mi-saponin C isolated from seed kernels are characterised as 3-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl-28-O-[(3-O-alfa-L-rhamnopyranosyl-4-O-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-beta-D-xylopyranosyl (1->4)-alfa-L rhamnopyranosyl (1->2)-alfa-L-arabinopyranosyl) proctobassic acid.
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| Herbarium No |
1 |
REFERENCES |
| SR No. |
NAME |
ARTICLE TITLE |
AUTHOR |
PLACE OF PUBLICATION |
VOLUME/ISSUE |
YEAR |
PUBLISHER |
COMMENT |
| 1 |
Popular prakashan |
Indian Materia Medica. |
Nadkarni, KM. |
Mumbai, India. |
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1954 |
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| 2 |
Pullaiah, T. |
Medicinal plants in India. |
Pullaiah, T. |
New Delhi. |
2 Vols. |
2002. |
Regency Publication. |
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| 3 |
IJEB. |
Toxicological evaluation of mowrah (Madhuca latifolia) seed meal. |
Cherian, KM, Gandhi, VM, Mulky, MJ. |
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34(1): 61-65. |
1996. |
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| 4 |
WOA |
The Wealth of Asia |
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New Delhi |
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1998 |
National Institute of Science Communication, CSIR |
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