Medicinal plant details
Mesua ferreaLinn.
(Nagakesara)
| Common name | Nagakesara |
| Habit | Tree |
| Habitat | Evergreen forests |
| Parts used | Stamen |
Synonyms
| Sr. No. | Synonyms |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mesua nagana Gardner |
| 2 | Mesua roxburghii Wight |
| 3 | Mesua salicina Planch. & Triana |
| 4 | Mesua sclerophylla Thwaites |
| 5 | Mesua speciosa Choisy |
| 6 | Mesua walkeriana Planch. & Triana |
| 7 | Mesua pedunculata Wight |
| 8 | Calophyllum nagassarium Burm.f. |
| 9 | Mesua nagassarium (Burm.f.) Kosterm. |
| 10 | Mesua ferrea var. thwaitesii Vesque |
| 11 | Mesua ferrea subsp. vera Vesque |
| 12 | Mesua ferrea var. angustifolia Thwaites |
| 13 | Mesua nagassarium var. salicina (Planch. & Triana) Vesque |
| 14 | Mesua nagassarium var. sclerophylla (Thwaites) Trimen |
Taxonomical information
| Kingdom | Viridiplantae |
| Phylum | Streptophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Malpighiales |
| Family | Calophyllaceae |
| Genus | Mesua |
| Species | Mesua ferrea Linn. |
Vernacular names
| Sanskrit | Kesara, Nagapuspa, Naga, Hema, Gajakesara |
| English | Cobras Saffron |
| Hindi | Nagakesara, Pila Nagkesara |
| Kannada | Nagsampige, Nagakesari |
| Marathi | Nagkesara |
| Malayalam | Nangaa, Nauga, Peri, Veluthapala, Nagappovu |
| Bengali | Nageshvara, Nagesar |
| Tamil | Naugu, Naugaliral, Nagachampakam, Sirunagappu |
| Telugu | Nagachampakamu |
| Urdu | Narmushk, Nagkesar |
Morphology
It is a medium to large sized ornamental plant grows up to 35 m tall. Bark brown with irregularly large flaky peelings; blaze reddish. Leaves are about 3 to 5 inches long, simple, narrow, ovate and egg-shaped. Leaves are dark green with a whitish underside, the newly growing leaves are red then slowly turn into yellow. Flowers are about 4 to 7.5 cm in diameter with four white petals and a center of numerous yellow stamens. Fruits are oblong in shape they are about 2.5 to 5.0 cm long with persistent calyx. Seeds are dark brown in color and cotyledon is fleshy and oily.
Distribution
It is distributed in Asian countries like Burma, Cambodia, Indochina, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. In India, it is distributed in the mountains of Eastern Himalaya and East Bengal, Assam, Burma, Andaman, evergreen rain forests of Western Ghats from South Canara to Travancore.
Medicinal uses
Gout, disease of bladder, edema, haemophilia
References
| 1 | Asif, M., Jafari, S. F., Iqbal, Z., Revadigar, V., Oon, C. E., Majid, A. S. A., and Majid, A. M. S. A. (2017). Ethnobotanical and Phytopharmacological attributes of Mesua ferrea: a mini review. Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical Science, 7, 242-251. |