Mesua ferrea

Ceylon ironwood
Ceylon ironwood in Thelwatta, South-East Sri Lanka.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Malpighiales
Family:	Calophyllaceae
Genus:	Mesua
Species:	M. ferrea
Binomial name
Mesua ferrea L.
Synonyms
Mesua coromandelina Wight Mesua nagassarium (Burm.f.) Kosterm. Mesua pedunculata Wight Mesua roxburghii Wight Mesua sclerophylla Thw. Mesua speciosa Choisy Mesua stylosa

Mesua ferrea (Ceylon ironwood, Indian rose chestnut, Cobra's saffron or locally, Penaga Lilin,Na (Sinhalese) or Nahar/Nahor, Sanskrit Nāga नाग, नागर, नागकेशर) is a species in the family Calophyllaceae. The plant is named after the heaviness of its timber and cultivated in tropical climates for its form, foliage, and fragrant flowers. It is native to tropical Sri Lanka but also cultivated in Assam, southern Nepal, Indochina, and the Malay Peninsula.

It is a tall tree reaching up to 100 feet tall, often buttressed at the base with a trunk up to 2 meters in diameter. It is common in wet zone at Sri Lanka up to 1500 meters. It has simple, narrow, oblong, dark green leaves 7–15 cm long, with a whitish underside; the emerging young leaves are red to yellowish pink and drooping. The flowers are 4–7.5 cm diameter, with four white petals and a center of numerous yellow stamens.

The National Ironwood Forest is a 96 ha (238 acre) forest in Sri Lanka where Mesua ferrea trees dominate the vegetation. It is said^{[by whom?]} that during King Dappula IV's period (8th century AD) this forest was created and the remaining trees are the shoots of it. Hence it is considered the oldest man-made forest in Sri Lanka. According to botanists this is the only ironwood forest in the dry zone with wet zone vegetation.

Symbolism and uses

• It is the National tree of Sri Lanka. The wood is very heavy, hard and strong. Weight is about 72 lbs per cubic foot & density is 1.12 ton/m³. Color is deep dark red. Refractory in sawing & mechanics moderately well. It is used for railroad ties and heavy structural timber.
• Its resin is slightly poisonous, but many parts have medicinal properties. It enhances the complexion. It leads to fragility transparency to the skin. The flowers are acrid, anodyne, digestive, constipating, stomachache^{[clarification needed]}. They are useful in conditions like asthma, leprosy, cough, fever, vomiting and impotency^{[citation needed]}. The seed oil is considered to be very useful in conditions like vata and skin diseases. Dried flowers are used for bleeding hemorrhoids and dysentery with mucus. Fresh flowers are useful remedy for itching, nausea, erysipelas, bleeding piles, metrorrhagea, menorrhagea, excessive thirst, and sweating^{[citation needed]}. Oil from the seeds is used for sores, scabies, wounds, and rheumatism.

Names

Mesua ferrea has different names in various Indian languages.^[1]

• Sanskrit : Champeryah; Nagkesara; Nagapushpa
• Hindi : Gajapushpam; Nagakesara (नाग केसर)
• Bengali : Nagesar
• Kannada : Nagasampige (ನಾಗಸಂಪಿಗೆ)
• Malayalam : Nagachampakam; Veila
• Marathi : Nagchampe
• Tamil : Cheru-nagapu; Sirunagappoo; Veilutta-champakam
• Telugu : Nagakesara

See also

• List of Indian timber trees

References

1. ^ Mesua ferrea, Dr. K.M. Nadkarni's Indian Materia Medica, by A.K. Nadkarni, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1976, pp: 792-4.

• Sriracha College: Mesua ferrea (in Thai; numerous photos)
• Himalaya Health Care: Mesua ferrea factsheet

External Links

• Caldecott, Todd (2006). Ayurveda: The Divine Science of Life. Elsevier/Mosby. ISBN 0723434107.  Contains a detailed monograph on Mesua ferrea (Nagakeshara) as well as a discussion of health benefits and usage in clinical practice. Available online at http://www.toddcaldecott.com/index.php/herbs/learning-herbs/312-nagakeshara