Mangrove Plant

Heritiera fomes Buch.-Ham.

  

Local name:  Sundari

Family:  Sterculiaceae

Habitat:

The tree grows in the Sunderban forests of Bangladesh and West Bengal of India, the coasts of Chittagong in Bangladesh, and Arakan, ascending the rivers within tidal limits.

Plant Description:  

The Height of the tree ranges from 15 to 25 m. The dark green leaves have short petioles and are grouped toward the ends of the branches. At the age of 3, the species begin to produce pueumatophores. The wood is very hard, the sapwood is pale whereas the heartwood is dark red, and the pores are moderate sized to large, often oval and subdivided into several compartments.

The flowers are arranged in panicles and unisexual. The fruit carpels may become 3.81 to 5.08 cm long and 2.54 to 3.81 cm wide.

Plant parts used: Wood, Leaves, Flowers, Bark

Uses:  

The wood can be used for house construction, boat building, telephone and electric poles, bodies of buses and trucks, house posts, handles of tools, fuel wood for cooking, burning bricks, and flooring.The bark is used as a relief for pain and diabetes in folk medicine.

Aegiceras corniculatum (L.) Blanco

Local name: Khalsi

Family: Myrsinaceae

Habitat: It is distributed in coastal and estuarine areas of Bangladesh, India, southern China, New Guinea and Australia.

Plant Description: It usually grows as a small tree up to 7 m high. The leaves are alternate and obovate usually 30–100 mm long and 15–50 mm wide, minutely dotted. White flowers are grows as umbellate clusters of 10–30, with a peduncle up to 10 mm long and with pedicels 10–18 mm long. Fruits are curved or horn-shaped, light green to pink in colour and 20–75 mm long.

Chemical constituents:

Seven new compounds were isolated from the stems and twigs of Aegiceras corniculatum,  namely, 2-methoxy-3-nonylresorcinol , 5-O-ethylembelin, 2-O-acetyl-5-O-methylembelin, 3,7-dihydroxy-2,5-diundecylnaphthoquinone, 2,7-dihydroxy-8-methoxy-3,6-diundecyldibenzofuran-1,4-dione, 2,8-dihydroxy-7-methoxy-3,9-diundecyldibenzofuran-1,4-dione, and 10-hydroxy-4-O-methyl-2,11-diundecylgomphilactone.

Plant parts used: Leaves, Bark, Root, Flowers.

Medicinal and traditional uses:

The plant has analgesic properties. Widely used for the treatment of rheumatism, inflammation, painful arthritis, and asthma. The plant possesses antioxidant, free radical scavenging, antinociceptive, anti-inflammatory, diabetes, and hepatoprotective actions. The plant parts are reportedly rich in flavonoids which prove the presence of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. It has the ability to reduce blood glucose. Bark and roots are used in fish poison. Wood is used for firing. Flower nectar serves one of the sources of honey.