Acacia chundra Wild. Synonym A. sundra DC.
Family Mimosaceae.
English Name : Red Cutch.
Ayurvedic Name : Khadira (related sp.).
Siddha/Tamil Name : Katthakkaambu (heartwood extract).
Folk Laal Khair.
Morphology
Trees; to 8 m high; bark rusty brown; rough, peeling off in thin flakes; branchlets smooth, glabrous, pale purplish-brown. Leaves bipinnate, alternate, stipulate; stipular spines short, hooked to 8 mm; rachis 8-10 cm long, slender, grooved above, pulvinate, glabrous; pinnae 10-15 pairs opposite, even pinnate, 2-4 cm long, slender, with a gland at the base of lowest pair of pinnae and between 1-2 extreme pairs on upper side; leaflets 30-60, opposite, sessile, stipels absent; lamina 4-10 x 1-2 mm, linear-oblong, base unequally truncate, apex obtuse, margin entire, glabrous, chartaceous, midrib subcentral, lateral nerves obscure. Flowers yellowish-white, 2 mm across, in axillary 1-3 clustered spikes shorter than leaves; calyx tube campanulate, 1 mm long, 5-lobed, glabrous; corolla three times as long as calyx, lobes linear-lanceolate, glabrous; stamens many, connate at base; ovary stipitate, falcate, upto 1.5 mm, glabrous; style filiform; stigma small, terminal. Fruit a pod, 5-10 x 1.5-2 cm, stipitate, flat, thin, glabrous, strongly nerved, obtuse at base, apically horned; suture wavy, depressed between seeds; seeds ca.6, ovoid, greenish-brown.
Flower
In axillary spikes; greenish-white. Flowering from April-August.
Fruit
A stipitate pod, flat, thin, strongly nerved, apically horned; seeds 6, ovoid. Fruiting September onwards.
Field tips
Bark rusty brown. Rachis sulcate with glands at the basal and the two upper most pinnae.
Leaf Arrangement
Alternate-spiral
Leaf Type
Bipinnate
Leaf Shape
Elliptic
Leaf Apex
Subacute
Leaf Base
Oblique
Leaf Margin
Entire
Medicinal Uses :
Uses similar to those of A. catechu heartwood extract.
The bark and leaves are used for ulcerated abscesses and toothache; wood for leucoderma.
EtOH (50%) extract—spermicidal and spasmolytic.
note: image courtesy to wikipedia commons
