Polyalthia longifolia

HABIT: Evergreen tree can grow up to a height of 15-20 meters tall. Young plants have straight trunks and weeping pendulous branch. The longest branch is seen at the base and shorter at the end of the trunk, giving an appearance of conical crown. Leaves are long, narrow dark green and glossy. Inflorescences axillary, fasciculate and shortly pedunculate, racemose, or umbelliform and sessile, mostly many flowered. Flowers are delicate pale green with wavy petals. The flowers last for a short period, usually two to three weeks and are not conspicuous due to their color. Initially fruits are green in color but turns purple or black when ripe. Seeds are pale brown, ovoid, with a longitudinal groove. 

CONSERVATION STATUS: Evaluated as 'Data Deficient' by IUCN.

MEDICINAL USES: P. longifolia bark is the most common serving part of this plant as it had been use to treat pyrexia, rheumatism, menorrhagia, scorpion sting and diabetes, meanwhile the decoction is widely used for curing mouth ulcer in many parts of India. The bark is bitter, acrid, cooling and febrifuge. Beside from being a good febrifuge agent, it is believed also to relieve skin disease, hypertension, helminthiasis and vitiate conditions of vata and pitta. Likewise, the bark embraces the treatment for digestive system, constipation, circulatory system, urinary system, and antipyretic activity. The in vitro antioxidant potential of ethanolic stem bark extract of P. longifolia was evaluated for its role on reactive oxygen species in tumor initiation and progression. The in vitro and in vivo antitumor activity of ethanolic stem bark extract of P. longifolia was evaluated by Manjula et al.  

(Jothy, S. L., Choong, Y. S., Saravanan, D., Deivanai, S., Latha, L. Y., Vijayarathna, S., & Sasidharan, S. (2013). Polyalthia longifolia Sonn: An ancient remedy to explore for novel therapeutic agents. Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences, 4(1), 714-730.)

ETHNOBOTANICAL USES: Enthnobotany is a conception of conscientious use of natural resources. Ages ago, these resources had rendered the rudimentary essence of every medicinal folk culture throughout the world. In contemplating the folk culture, one should be able to translate, interpret, and amalgamate these native concepts and beliefs pertaining to illness, its signs and symptoms. In uniformity, it may beget a better practical biomedical image of therapeutic study. It follows that, the plant Polyalthia longifolia had long served the purpose of being medically important as per Ayurveda. 

(Jothy, S. L., Choong, Y. S., Saravanan, D., Deivanai, S., Latha, L. Y., Vijayarathna, S., & Sasidharan, S. (2013). Polyalthia longifolia Sonn: An ancient remedy to explore for novel therapeutic agents. Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences, 4(1), 714-730.)