71

Mimusops elengi L.

Synonym	:	Mimusops parvifolia R.Br.
Family	:	Sapotaceae
Local name	:	English - Asian bullet wood Malayalam - Elanchi, Elangi
Flowering and fruiting period	:	December-August
Distribution	:	Indo-Malesia
Distribution in Kerala	:	All Districts
Habitat	:	Semi-evergreen and evergreen forests, also  grown in homesteads
Uses	:	The bark, flowers, fruits and seeds are used in Ayurvedic medicine in which it is purported to be astringent, cooling, anthelmintic, tonic and febrifuge. It is mainly used for dental ailments such as bleeding gums, pyorrhoea, dental caries, and loose teeth.
Key Botanical Characters:  Evergreen trees, bark dark grey, cracked or fissured longitudinally, scaly, rough; lenticels vertical; exudation milky; young branches brown pubescent. Leaves simple, alternate, spiral, stipulate; stipules lanceolate, caducous. Flowers bisexual, white, fragrant, 1-3 in axillary fascicles. Calyx lobes 8 in 2 series of 4 each, thick, outer lanceolate, valvate, pubescent; corolla 1 cm across; lobes 24, 3 series of 8 each, with hairs on back and margins, acuminate; stamens 8, alternating with pilose staminodes; filaments 1 mm, anthers oblong, cordate, connectives apiculate; staminodes lanceolate, acuminate, fimbricate, pilose; ovary void, hirsute without, 6-8-celled; 1 ovule in each cell; style columnar, stigma minutely fimbricate. Fruit a berry, yellow, ovoid, fleshy, epicarp thin; seed usually 1, oblong-ellipsoid, laterally compressed.