Pongam Tree
Pongam Tree : Pongamia Pinnata, Indian Beech Tree, Pongame Oil Tree, Karanj करंज, புந்கா Pungai, Ponnu, Unnu, Koranjo, Honge, करंज Karanj, Pungu, કરંજ Karanja, করংজ Karanj, Karchaw, करंजः Karanjah, करेङ्गी Karengi, कद्जा Kadzaa, Pongamia pinnata, Millettia pinnata, Pongamia glabra, Derris indica, Cytisus pinnatus
Pongamia Pinnata is a fast-growing deciduous tree up to 20 metres tall that is thought to have originated in India and is found throughout Asia. It is a deciduous tree that grows to about 15-25 meters in height with a large canopy that spreads equally wide. The leaves are a soft, shiny burgundy in early summer and mature to a glossy, deep green as the season progresses. Small clusters of white, purple, and pink flowers blossom on their branches throughout the year, maturing into brown seed pods.
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Health Benefits and Uses of Pongam Tree
- According to Hartwell (1967–1971), the fruits and sprouts are used in folk remedies for abdominal tumors in India, the seeds for keloid tumors in Sri Lanka, and a powder derived from the plant for tumors in Vietnam. In sanskritic India, seeds were used for skin ailments.
- Leaves are active against Micrococcus
- their juice is used for colds, coughs, diarrhea, dyspepsia, flatulence, gonorrhea, and leprosy. * Roots are used for cleaning gums, teeth, and ulcers.
- Bark is used internally for bleeding piles.
- Juices from the plant, as well as the oil, are antiseptic. It is said to be an excellent remedy for itch, herpes, and pityriasis versicolor.
- Powdered seeds are valued as a febrifuge, tonic and in bronchitis and whooping cough.
- Flowers are used for diabetes.
- Bark has been used for beriberi.
- Juice of the root is used for cleansing foul ulcers and closing fistulous sores.
- Young shoots have been recommended for rheumatism.
- Ayurvedic medicine described the root and bark as alexipharmic, anthelmintic, and useful in abdominal enlargement, ascites, biliousness, diseases of the eye, skin, and vagina, itch, piles, splenomegaly, tumors, ulcers, and wounds; the sprouts, considered alexeteric, anthelmintic, apertif, and stomachic, for inflammation, piles and skin diseases; the leaves, anthelmintic, digestive, and laxative, for inflammations, piles and wounds; the flowers for biliousness and diabetes; the fruit and seed for keratitis, piles, urinary discharges, and diseases of the brain, eye, head, and skin, the oil for biliousness, eye ailments, itch, leucoderma, rheumatism, skin diseases, worms, and wounds.
- Yunani use the ash to strengthen the teeth, the seed, carminative and depurative, for chest complaints, chronic fevers, earache, hydrocele, and lumbago; the oil, styptic and vermifuge, for fever, hepatalgia, leprosy, lumbago, piles, scabies, and ulcers.
- The leaves are spicy, digestive, laxative, anthelmintic and cure piles, wounds and other inflammations (Kirtikar & Basu, 1933).
- A liquid solution of the leaves is used as a medicated bath for relieving rheumatic pains and for cleaning ulcers in gonorrhea and scrofulous enlargement (Chopra et al., 1933; Satyavati et al., 1987).
- Root and seed extracts of P. pinnata have been reported to have anti-inflammatory activity (Singh & Pandey, 1996; Singh et al., 1996).
