Terminalia elliptica Terminalia alata Nalla maddi, Marutamaram, asan, raktarjun

Terminalia elliptica Willd.
Family: Combretaceae
Synonyms: Terminalia alata

• English: Indian Laurel, Silver grey wood, White chuglam
• Hindi: आसन Asan, साज Saj
• Marathi: ऐन Ain, असण Asan, साताडा Satada, शार्दूळ Shardul
• Tamil: அருச்சுனம் Aruccunam, கருமருது Karumarutu, மருதமரம் Marutamaram
• Malayalam: Matthi
• Telugu: ఇనుమద్ది Innu maddi, నల్లమద్ది Nalla maddi
• Kannada: Banappu, Karimaddi, Sadada, Unapu mara
• Bengali: Asan
• Oriya: Sahaju
• Sanskrit: रक्तअर्जुन Raktarjun

Description: Deciduous trees, 10-15m high; bark black with deep vertical fissures and transverse cracks looks like crocodile skin; branchlets villous. Leaves opposite; lamina thick-chartaceous, elliptic-oblong, 6-14 × 3-7cm, base and apex obtuse, shallowly crenulate, glabrous above, tomentose beneath; secondary nerves articulate; glands turbinate on the mid nerve at the base of the leaf blade. Flowers 5-merous, 4-5mm across, light brownish-yellow; in 4-5cm long dense pedunculed spikes that are aggregated into 10-15 cm long terminal panicles. Rachis villous. Sepals 5, brown, 3-4mm long, villous. Petals absent. Stamens 10, exerted. Ovary inferior, terete, oblong, ovules 2-3 pendulous; style exerted. Fruit woody, and fibrous, 3-5 × 3-4cm, ovoid, with 5 glabrous wings.

Used in Ayurveda. Bark juice applied to treat wounds, cuts, skin diseases, diarrhea; bark for anemia. Gum edible for stomach disorders. Leaves paste given in vomiting; boiling leaves vapor inhaled to relieve headache; tender leaves chewed and applied along with saliva to bleeding wounds and bandaged. Magico-religious beliefs, logs of this wood are worshipped, a very sacred tree avoided for suicide by hanging; articles associated with Gods and shrines are made of this wood and also funerary pillars; shrines made under this tree. Bark infusion in menstrual disorders. [CRC World Dictionary of Medicinal and Poisonous Plants]

12 Published articles of Terminalia elliptica / alata

1.    Terminalia elliptica (Combretaceae) is not conspecific with T. arjuna Chakrabarty, T. and V.S. Kumar, Phytotaxa, 2017. 295(3): p. 297-300.
2.    against, -.P.t.c.t.n.P.a.T.a.a.T.e.a.T.c.a.t.n.T.c.R.W.A., Taxon, 2014. 63(5): p. 1135-1136.
3.    New antifungal constituents from Terminalia alata Srivastava, S.K., S.D. Srivastava, and B.K. Chouksey, Fitoterapia, 2001. 72(2): p. 106-112.
4.    Triterpenoid glycoside from the roots of Terminalia alata Srivastava, S.K., B.K. Chouksey, and S.D. Srivastava, Fitoterapia, 2001. 72(2): p. 191-193.
5.    High bioassay values in Terminalia alata leaves: indication of Cu mineralisation in Malanjkhand Granitoid, C.I.P., G. N. and J.P. Shrivastava, Chemical Speciation and Bioavailability, 2001. 13(4): p. 97-111.
6.    A triterpenoidal saponin and other new constituents from Terminalia alata Srivastava, S.K., S.D. Srivastava, and B.K. Chouksey, in Proceedings of the Phytochemical Society of Europe. Saponins in food, feedstuffs and medicinal plants. 2000. p. 107-111.
7.    New constituents of Terminalia alata Srivastava, S.K., S.D. Srivastava, and B.K. Chouksey, Fitoterapia, 1999. 70(4): p. 390-394.
8.    CHEMICAL-CONSTITUENTS OF THE BARK OF TERMINALIA-ALATA Mallavarapu, G.R., S.B. Rao, and K.V. Syamasundar, Journal of Natural Products, 1986. 49(3): p. 549-550.
9.    3-ACETYLMASLINIC ACID FROM THE ROOT BARK OF TERMINALIA-ALATA Anjaneyulu, A.S.R., et al., Phytochemistry, 1986. 25(11): p. 2670-2671.
10.    MASLINIC LACTONE FROM THE HEARTWOOD OF TERMINALIA-ALATA Mallavarapu, G.R. and E. Muralikrishna, Journal of Natural Products, 1983. 46(6): p. 930-931.
11.    TANNINS FROM THE BARK OF TERMINALIA-ALATA A PROMISING SOIL STABILIZER Bhatia, K. and J. Lal, Indian Forester, 1981. 107(8): p. 529-531.
12.    TRITERPENOIDS OF THE HEARTWOOD OF TERMINALIA-ALATA HEYNE EX ROTH Mallavarapu, G.R., et al., Indian Journal of Chemistry Section B-Organic Chemistry Including Medicinal Chemistry, 1980. 19(8): p. 713-714.