Garuga pinnata ROXB.

Family : Burseraceae

English Name : Grey Downy Balsam

Description

A medium-sized deciduous tree; bark thick, soft, grey or brown outside and red within, peeling off in irregular flakes. Leaves alternate, imparipinnate, 15 to 45 cm long, clustered at the ends of branches; leaflets 5 to 10 pairs plus a terminal one, opposite, 5 to 15 cm long and 2 to 5 cm wide, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, apex usually acuminate, base oblique, margins crenate to serrate, pubescent when young. Flowers small, yellow, bell-shaped, borne in much-branched terminal clusters, several together at the ends of branches; bracts deciduous; calyx 6 mm long, campunulate, downy tomentose outside, lobes ovate-oblong, subobtuse; petals 5 mm long, linear-oblong, tomentose outside, attached to the tube of the calyx beneath the margin of the disc. The fruit is a fleshy, smooth globose, edible, black drupe, approximately 1.8 cm long; seed with a membranous wing.


Parts Used : Leaf, bark and fruit


Herb Effects
The fruit is stomachic, astringent and expectorant; antiasthmatic (leaf).


Active Ingredients
Garuganin I and III (macrocyclic biphenylethers) (stem bark and leaf); amentoflavone (leaf).


Medicinal Use

In asthma (leaf) and increasing the secretion of gastric juices (fruit); as an eye-drop to cure opacities of the eye (stem juice); to treat dislocated bones and to heal wounds (bark juice); for curing skin diseases (root bark).

Reference