Nag Kesar

Botanical Name: Mesua ferrea

NAGAKESAR It is a tall tree reaching up to 100 feet tall. It is native to tropical Sri Lanka but also cultivated in Assam, southern Nepal, Indochina, and the Malay Peninsula.It is cultivated basically for its timber,foilage and fragrant flower. It is the National tree of Sri Lanka. The oldest man-made forest in Sri Lanka, the National Ironwood Forest is dominated by this tree. And it is the only ironwood forest in the dry zone with wet zone vegetation. Its resin is slightly poisonous, but many parts have medicinal properties. It enhances the complexion. It leads to fragility transparency to the skin. The flowers are acrid, anodyne, digestive, constipating, stomachache. They are useful in conditions like asthma, leprosy, cough, fever, vomiting and impotency. The seed oil is considered to be very useful in conditions like vata and skin diseases. Dried flowers are used for bleeding hemorrhoids and dysentery with mucus. Fresh flowers are useful remedy for itching, nausea, erysipelas, bleeding piles, metrorrhagea, menorrhagea, excessive thirst, and sweating]. Oil from the seeds is used for sores, scabies, wounds, and rheumatism. It has digestant, anti poisonous, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and anthelmintic activity. It is used in fever, itching, nausea, leprosy, skin disorders, erysipelas, bleeding piles, metrorrhagea, menorrhagea, excessive thirst, and sweating. The essential oil has antimicrobial and anthelmintic activity. Recently it has been shown that calophyllolide is effective in reducing the increased capillary permeability induced in mice by iiistamine, 5-HT and bradykinin. Main use of stamen has been described for controlling bleeding in menorrhagia and piles.In a study of, the plant to assess its putative sex-steroidal activity, no oestrogenic or progestational activity was found. Its use in menorrhagia may he due to its action on capillaries. Oil is used to treat skin diseases and its local application is also recommended in rheumatism. The plant has been widely used in India.