Tsampaka

Uses

The bark of the trunk is well known as a febrifuge and emmenagogue in India. It is slightly bitter and aromatic. Dr. H. Folliat has used it with success in the Island of Mauritius in the treatment of the common intermittent fevers; he administered the infusion (bark 30 grams, water 600 cc.)—or the decoction (bark 30 grams, water 1,200 cc.); boil till reduced to 600 cc.—giving a wine-glassful every hour just before and after the paroxysm.

An astringent decoction made from the leaves is used as a gargle in sore throat. The root is emmenagogue and the seeds are used in the treatment of anal fissure.

Dr. Hooper has found the following substances in the bark of the Champana: a volatile oil with a pine-like odor; a fixed oil, insoluble in alcohol, melting at 15° and forming soap with soda; a resin extremely bitter, acrid, brown in color; tannin; sugar; a bitter principle, albuminoids, coloring matters, mucilage and starch.

Botanical description

A tree 15–18° high; leaves alternate, 6 × 2′, stipulate, simple. Flowers fragrant, saffron-colored, hermaphrodite, solitary and axillary. The receptacle, conical at its base, becomes narrow, lengthens and then enlarges, forming a column which is bare at its narrow part. At its base is inserted the perianth composed of 6 overlapping leaflets arranged in two series. Stamens indefinite, fixed in the base of the column of the receptacle on the superior portion of which are inserted the ovaries which contain many ovules arranged in two vertical series.