MELIA AZEDARACH LINN.

                            MELIA AZEDARACH LINN.

  English name – Umbrella tree                   Nepali name –Bakena  Family – Meliaceae

DESCRIPTION:

It is cultivated as well as wild and found in the altitudes ranges 700-1100m.

MELIA is a tree which grows up to 20ml tall. The steam is covered with irregular plate or tough like barks of about 6mm in thickness. Leaves are pinnately compound, leaflets are broad, glabrous, ovate to elliptical, dentate and acuminate. Inflorescenes is an axillary panicle. Flowers fragrant, elongated, and purple in colour. Fruits  is drupe type. Seeds are blacks and elliptical.

PARTS USED:

Root bark or steam bark, heartwood, leaves, flowers, and fruits.

IMPORTANT BIOCHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS:

Alkaloids  azaridine  and paraisine.     

USED:

1. Barks of the roots and stem are used to treat ascariasis, ancylostomiasis, ringworm.

2. A poultice of the flowers is applied to eruptive skin diseases.

3 .Decoction of leaf is regarded as astringent and stomachic.

4. The aqueous extract of the heartwood is useful in asthma.

5. The leaf juice is given anthelmintic, antilithic given diuretic and emmenagogue.

                But the fruits are poisonous which causes vomiting and show the symptoms of paralysis when eaten.