Pinkapinkahan
Oroxylum indicum · Indian trumpet tree
- Names in the book
- Pinkapinkahan, Pinkapinka, Taghilaw, Abag̃abag̃, Tag.; Abag̃abag̃, Vis.
- Colours
- flowerpurple, creampodbrown
- Native range
- South and Southeast Asia
- In the Philippines, per the book
- Common in many parts of Luzon, in Mindanao, Cebú and Paragua.
- Family
- Bignoniaceae, filed in the book under Bignoniaceæ
- Printed as
- Oroxylum Indicum, Vent. (Bignonia Indica, L.; B. quadripinnata, Blanco; Colosanthes Indica, Bl.)
- Sources
- Page 183 on Project Gutenberg · Wikipedia
The plant today
Oroxylum indicum is a species of flowering plant, in the monotypic genus Oroxylum in the family Bignoniaceae. It is commonly called Indian trumpet tree, oroxylum, Indian trumpet flower, broken bones, scythe tree, tree of Damocles, or midnight horror. It can reach a height of 18 metres (59 ft). Various segments of the tree are used in traditional medicine.
Excerpt from “Oroxylum indicum” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Recorded in the Philippines
GBIF holds 108 records of this plant from the Philippines. The ones with map coordinates fall in 9 provinces, most often Zamboanga del Norte (21), Palawan (7), Sorsogon (3), Antique (3), Rizal (2), Cavite (1), Davao del Norte (1), Leyte (1), and 1 more.
Counts from GBIF occurrence records, October 2026. They include planted trees and garden plants, and a province with no records may only lack collectors.
What the 1901 book says
A historical record, quoted as printed. Doses and remedies here are not medical advice.
Uses
The Hindoos consider the trunk bark an astringent and tonic and use it commonly in diarrhœa and dysentery. In Bombay it has a wide use in veterinary practice as an application for the sore backs of the domestic cattle. Sarangadhara recommends for diarrhœa and dysentery the infusion of the roasted bark mixed with infusion of Bombax malabaricum.
Dr. Evers experimented with the powder and an infusion of the bark obtaining a strong diaphoretic action. He obtained the same effect with baths containing the bark and reported successful results in thus treating 24 cases of rheumatism. The dose of the powder was 0.30–1 gram a day in 3 doses; the infusion (30 grams bark to 300 boiling water), 90 grams a day in 3 doses. Combined with opium it had more pronounced diaphoretic effects than the compounds of opium and ipecac. The plant possesses no febrifuge properties.
Botanical description
A tree, 5–6 meters high, trunk straight, hollow, the hollow space containing many thin partitions covered with small points; branches opposite. Leaves 4 times odd pinnate. Leaflets obliquely ovate, acute, entire, glabrous. Flowers in racemes with long, primary peduncles, large, fleshy, lurid, violet color, odor mawkish. Calyx inferior, cylindrical, monophyllous, entire. Corolla much longer than calyx, fleshy, bell-shaped, 5-lobed. Stamens 5, all fertile, fixed on the corolla, nearly equal in height. Style longer than stamens, flattened. Stigma cleft in 2 flat leaves. Silique or pod about 3° long and 2′ wide, flattened, borders grooved and curved downward, containing a great number of seeds encircled by a broad, flat, imbricated wing.
Recent research
The most cited papers since 2022 that name this plant in the title, pulled from Europe PMC in October 2026. Titles are the authors' own and the findings have not been reviewed here.
- Bioprospecting of fungal endophytes from Oroxylum indicum (L.) Kurz with antioxidant and cytotoxic activity
- LC-TOF-MS/MS and GC-MS based phytochemical profiling and evaluation of wound healing activity of Oroxylum Indicum (L.) Kurz (Beka)
- Anticancer potential of phytochemicals from Oroxylum indicum targeting Lactate Dehydrogenase A through bioinformatic approach