Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn.) Roxb.
| Kannada Name : | Taarekaayi, Shanthikayi |
| Common Name : | Baheda |
| Family Name : | Combretaceae |
| Scientific Name : | Terminalia bellirica |
| Species Type : | Indigenous |
| Phenology : | Evergreen |
| Conservation Status : | Least concern |
| Flowering Period : | April - May |
| Fruiting Period : | November - February |
| Origin : | Tropical Asia, India |
Uses
The fruit is anthelmintic, astringent, digestive, tonic and laxative. It is used internally principally in the treatment of digestive and respiratory problems. In Indian herbal medicine the ripe fruit is used in cases of diarrhoea and indigestion, whilst the unripe fruit is used as a laxative in cases of chronic constipation. The fruit is often used to treat upper respiratory tract infections that cause symptoms of sore throats, hoarseness and coughs. Externally, the fruit is used to make a lotion for sore eyes.
Description
Deciduous trees, up to 35 m high, bole often buttressed; bark surface blackish-grey, smooth, vertically shallowly fissured, exfoliations small, semi-fibrous; blaze yellow; branches sympodial; branchlets terete, thinly fulvous-hairy, leaf scars prominent. Leaves simple, opposite or alternate, clustered at the tip of branchlets, obovate, elliptic or obovate-elliptic, glabrous, base obliquely cuneate, attenuate or acute; apex obtusely acuminate, margin entire. Inflorescence an axillary spike. Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow. Fruit a drupe, obovoid, obscurely 5-ridged, yellowish-brown, honed, not winged, softly tomentose; seed one, ellipsoid.
