Hydnocarpus wightiana Blume

Hydnocarpus wightiana Blume, Rumph. 1848.



Sinhala name is Makula,

A tree about 12 – 15 m height; leaves simple, alternate, 12.5 – 22 .5 cm long, 3.7 – 7.5 cm broad, ovate, oblong or lanceolate, acuminate, entire or serrate, glabrous, base acute or rounded, petiole 0.6 – 1 cm long, stipules lanceolate and deciduous; flower regular, unisexual, dioecious, 1 – 1.2 cm diam, solitary or in small racemes ; sepal 5, imbricate, the outer ovate, the three inner much larger, very concave ; petal 5, with a scale at the base of each, broadly oblong or orbicular, rounded at the top, fringed with soft white hairs, scale about half the size of petals, ovate, densely hairy ; male flowers; stamen 5, sterile; ovary superior , globose , hairy, unilocular, ovules many on 3-6 parietal placentas, stigmas on 3 – 6, fiat on top of ovary, each cuneate and 2- lobe; fruit berry globose or obovoid, about the size of a small apple , tomen - tose , pericarp woody, seeds numerous, yellowish and obtusely angular.


Composition

Fatty oil
Chaulmoogra oil
Chaulmoogric acid,
Hydnocarpic acids.

Application

The seeds are used as a remedy for certain persistent skin diseases, ophthalmia and as a dressing for wounds and ulcers. The oil from the seeds is applied on scabby eruptions and on scalds.