1305

 Dysoxylum malabaricum Bedd. ex C. DC.

Synonym	:	Alliaria malabarica Kuntze
Family	:	Meliaceae
Local name	:	English - White cedar Malayalam - Akil, Purippa, Vellakil
Flowering and fruiting period	:	February-June
Distribution	:	Southern Western Ghats
Distribution in Kerala	:	Palakkad, Kollam, Idukki, Pathanamthitta, Malappuram, Thrissur,                                                Kannur, Wayanad
Habitat	:	Evergreen forests
Endemic/Exotic	:	Southern Western Ghats
Uses	:	A decoction of the wood is useful in the treatment of arthritis, anorexia, cardiac debility, expelling intestinal worms, inflammation, leprosy & rheumatism. The wood oil is used to treat ear and eye diseases.
Key Botanical Characters:  Trees, up to 35 m high, bark thick, greyish-yellow, rough, verrucose; lenticels warty, fissured; aromatic, outer bark dead, corky. Leaves imparipinnate, alternate, estipulate; leaflets 7-11, opposite, subopposite or alternate. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, fragrant, Calyx deeply 4 lobed, lobes more or less obtuse. Petals 4, linear-oblong, subacute, pubescent outside, imbricate. Staminal tube urceolate, more or less 4-angled, with 8 deep emarginate crenatures; anthers 8, included; disc cup shape, entire, only just enclosing the ovary. Ovary superior, densely pubescent, 4-celled, ovules 2 in each cell; tapering into style; stigma capitate, 4-lobed. Fruit capsule.