Botanical Name : Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb.
Family : Leguminosae (Fabaceaea)
Local Name : Odia : Bija , Piasal, Hindi : Bijasal, Bengali : Pitshal, Sanskrit : Murga, Telugu : Yegi
                       Malayalam : Venga, Tamil : Vengai, Kannada : Honne
Habitat : Pterocarpus marsupium Roxb. is a large deciduous tree commonly found in hilly region of India.
Distribution : India (Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa, Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh), Nepal, Sri-Lanka.
Flowering & Fruiting time : April-July & August-October
Conservation Status : Endangered

Description
Habit : Tree
Leaf : Leaves are compound with 5 to 7 leaflets. Leaflets are oblong or elliptical with rounded or obtuse or retuse ends, glaucous beneath, secondary nerves close and parallel, over 12 cm each side.
Flower : Flower yellow, up to 1.2 cm long, corolla papilionaceous, exserted beyond calyx, Stamen 10, split in 2 bundles.
Fruit: Legume indehiscent, orbicular, compressed, broadly hardened winged around margin, usually single seeded, seeds subreniform, hilum small.

Uses

Pterocarpus marsupium is one of the valuable multipurpose forest tree that yield excellent timber for the national & international trade market. Wood is used for building furniture, agricultural and railway purpose .

Wood: The heartwood is used as an ointment to astringent, bitter, acrid, cooling, anti-inflammatory, union promoter, depurative, urinary astringent, haemostatic, asthelmintic, constipating, anodyne alterant and rejuvenation. It is also useful in elephantiasis, inflammations, fractures bruises, leprosy,

skin disease, leucoderma, erysipelas urethrorrhoea, diabetes, rectalgia, rectitis, opthalmopathy, diarrhea, dysentery, cough, asthma, bronchitis and greyness of hair.

Leaves: The leaf paste is used as an ointment to treat skin diseases, sores and boils.

Flower: The flower is used as appetizing and febrifuge and also taken to treat anorexia and fever.

Gum-resin: The gum is taken to treat bitter, styptic, vulnerary, antipyretic, anthelmintic and liver tonic. It is useful in spasmodic gastralgia, boils, gleet, urethrorrhoea, odontalgia, diarrhea, psoriasis, wound and ulcers, helminthasis, fevers,hepatopathy and ophthalmia.

Some facts:

Pterocarpus marsupium is a plant drug belonging to a group called Rasayana in Ayurvedic system of medicine. These Rasayana drugs are immunomodulators and relieve stress in the body. In India kannada peoples are used to make a wooden tumbler from the heartwood. Water is left overnight in the wooden tumbler and is consumed in the next morning to cure diabetes. Kol tribes in Odisha pound a paste mixture of the bark of P. marsupium with the bark of Mangifera indica, Shorea robusta

& Spondias pinnata to treat some dysentery illness. The gum resin of this plant is the only herbal product ever found that regenerate beta cells that produce insulin in pancreas.

Source :

 Saxsena, H.O. & Brahmam, M. (1994). The Flora of Orissa, Vol. I, pp: 574.

 Sharma P.C.; Yelne M.B.; Dennis T.J. (2005 ).Database on Medicinal Plants Used in Ayurveda,

Vol.3, pp: 32-33.

 Sharma R.(2003). Medicinal plants of India-An encyclopedia, pp: 206.

 Swain B.K & Das S.K. (2007) Visual guide to wild medicinal plants of Orissa ,pp: 37.

 www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterocarpus_marsupium.