Celastrus paniculatus Willd

Scientific names

Common names

Catha paniculata (Willd.) Scheidw.

Bilogo (Tag.)

Ceanothus paniculatus (Willd.) B.Heyne ex Roth

Lagete (Tag.)

Celastrus paniculatus Willd.

Lañgitñgit (Tag.)

Scutia paniculata (Willd.) G.Don

Black oil plant (Engl.)

Accepted infraspecifics

Black oil tree (Engl.)

Celastrus paniculatus subsp. aggregatus K.M.Matthew

Intellect tree (Engl.)

Celastrus paniculatus subsp. angladeanus Britto, Mani, S.Thomas

Climbing-staff plant (Engl.)

Celastrus paniculatus subsp. multiflorus D.Hou

Oriental bittersweet (Engl.)

Celastrus paniculatus subsp. paniculatus

Tree of life (Engl.)

Celastrus paniculatus subsp. serratus (Blanco) D.Hou

Celastrus paniculatus Willd. is an accepted name. KEW: Plants of the World Online

Other vernacular names

ASSAM: Kunkunilata.

BENGALI: Malkanjri.

CHINESE: Dian nan she teng, Da you guo, Hong guo teng, Xiao huang guo, Huan zhui nan she teng, Deng you teng.

HINDI: Malkakni, Malkamni, Malkangni.

MALAYALAM: Polulavam.

SANSKRIT: Jyotishmati, Kanguni, Sphutabandhani, Svarnalota.

TAMIL: Valuluvai.

Gen info
- Celastrus, commonly referred to as staff vine, staff tree, or bittersweet, is a genus in the family Celastraceae, which comprises about 30-40 species of shrubs and vines with a wide distribution in East Asia, Australasias, Africa, and the Americas.
- Etymology: The genus name Celastrus derives from Greek word kelastros, the name of another tree.  The species epithet paniculatus,means 'panicles' referring to the "flower clusters".
- Used for thousand of years in the traditional Indian System of Medicine: Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha.

සාමාන්‍ය තොරතුරු

සෙලාාස්ට්‍රස්, සාමාන්‍යයෙන් කාර්ය මණ්ඩල වැල්, සැරයටි ගස හෝ කටුක පැණි ලෙස හඳුන්වනු ලබන අතර, නැගෙනහිර ආසියාව, ඕස්ට්‍රේලියානුවන්, අප්‍රිකාව සහ ඇමරිකාවේ පුළුල් ව්‍යාප්තියක් සහිත පඳුරු සහ වැල් විශේෂ 30-40කින් පමණ සමන්විත Celastraceae පවුලේ කුලයකි. .

- නිරුක්ති විද්‍යාව: Celastrus යන කුල නාමය ව්‍යුත්පන්න වී ඇත්තේ වෙනත් ගසක නම වන kelastros යන ග්‍රීක වචනයෙනි. Paniculatus යන විශේෂණයෙන් අදහස් වන්නේ "මල් පොකුරු" වෙත යොමු වන 'panicles' යන්නයි.

- සාම්ප්‍රදායික ඉන්දියානු වෛද්‍ය ක්‍රමයේ වසර දහස් ගණනක් භාවිතා කර ඇත: ආයුර්වේදය, යුනානි සහ සිද්ධ ක්‍රම වලට.

Botany

Bilogo is a smooth woody vine, reaching a length of 4 to 10 meters. Branches are pendulous. Leaves are ovate to elliptic-ovate, 5 to 12 centimeters long, toothed at the margins. Flowers are numerous, greenish or greenish white, borne on lax, pendulous panicles, 7 to 18 centimeters long and about 5 millimeters in diameter. Fruit is ovoid or subglobose, 7 to 9 millimeters long, yellow, three-celled and usually three-seeded. Seeds are red and surrounded by a fleshy aril. 

Constituents

- Seeds yield an oil, a bitter resinous principle, tannin and ash.

- Oil from seeds yield alkaloids celastrine and paniculatin in varying amounts.

- Destructive distillation of seeds yield oleum nigrum – an empyreumatic black oil.

- Fatty oil contains colasterol and a coloring matter, chromagen.

- A study of the leaves suggested a small amount of scarcely poisonous alkaloid and a glucoside.

- Analysis of the percentages of individual acids in seed fat showed: formic, 1.5; acetic, traces; benzoic, 3.4; palmitic, 31.2, stearic, 3.5; oleic, 22.5; linoleic, 15.7; linolenic, 22.2.(5)

- Phytochemical screening of different plant parts yielded alkaloids tannins and fixed oils in water PE, ethanol and chloroform extracts; carbohydrates and saponins in water extract, sterols and triterpenoids in water and ethanol extracts.

- GC-MS study of essential oil of seeds showed an oil yield of 0.09% (v/w) with a total of 56 constituents identified, comprising 99.2% of total oil. Major components were palmitic acid (38.61%), phytol (11.72%), erucic acid (6.99%), trans-beta-copaene (4.78%) , and linalool (3.97%). (see study below) (19)

- In a study for phenolic acid (µg/g dry wt), crude extract yielded benzoic acid 3629.70, gallic acid 393.40, and tannic acid 3652.20. (see study below) (26)

- Phytochemical screening of various solvent extracts of leaves showed steroids and terpenoids in both petroleum ether and ethyl acetate extracts while the methanol extract yielded steroid, terpenoid, carbohydrate, alkaloid, saponin, and phenolic compounds. (30)

- Phytochemical screening of water, petroleum ether, ethanol and chloroform extracts of leaves yielded alkaloids, tannins, fixed oils in W, PE, E, and C extracts, steroid and terpenoids in W and E, flavonoids, carbohydrates, saponins, and phenolic compounds in water extract. (39)

- Study of seed oil by solvent extraction and GC-MS yielded crude fatty oil at 45.5% in the mature seeds on dry weight basis, and identified 14 compounds, constituting 97.57% of the oil. The oil was rich in unsaturated fatty acids (70.11%) with saturated fatty acids (25.2%). Main fatty acids were oleic acid (54.42%), palmitic acid (20.0%), linoleic acid (15.51%), and stearic acid (4.18%), with four minor fatty acids. Study yielded four novel compounds not previously reported: 1,4-benzenediol (0.46%), cinnamic acid (0.15%), 2,6-di-tert-butyl-p-benzoquinone (0.03%), butylated hydroxytoluene (0.4%), and eudalene (0.16%). (48)

Uses

Folkloric

- Pulverized seeds used as antirheumatic; also used for cases of paralysis.

- Leaves used for dysentery.

- Decoction of seeds, with or without aromatics, used for rheumatism, gout, paralysis and gout.

- Boiled seeds used for body and mind purification and blood cleansing.

- Oil, with benzoin, nutmegs, cloves and mace, used as a remedy for beriberi; also used as a powerful stimulant.

- Oil used as ointment for malarious rheumatic pains and for paralysis.

- Root and leaf sap used as antidote for snake bite poisoning.

- In Ayurveda, bark considered as abortifacient; the leaves and leaf sap used as antidote to opium poisoning. Also used as brain tonic, appetite stimulant, and emetic.(1)

- In Greco-Arabic Yunani medicine, seed oil used to treat physical weakness, mental confusion, asthma, headaches, joint pains and arthritis. Also used as a sexual stimulant.

- In India, used for memory difficulties, to improve memory recall and retention.

- In Kerala, India, plant widely used for many human diseases and health disorders. Roots used for purifying the blood, eradicating stomach parasites; root paste for skin disease, ground roots for burns and boils; mixed with C. asiatica as an intellect enhancing tonic. Crush bark stem used as antidote to cobra venom; bark decoction used as abortifacient. Leaves used as anthelmintic; leaf juice locally for earaches; leaf juice for memory power; fried leaves with flowers of H. rosa-sinensis to induce menstruation. Seed oil used for skin diseases, rheumatism, arthritis and various inflammatory conditions; also used for diabetes, beri-beri, asthmatic cough and chest pains. (14)

- Used for leprosy by tribal people of Myong district in Assam, India. Powdered seeds and oil are applied to affected parts. (28)

- In Himalayan medicine, used for treatment of hemorrhoids, gout, rheumatism, cold, dysentery, diarrhea, leprosy, and snake bites. In India, fruit juice used as cardiotonic and seeds as appetizer. Paste of fruit mixed with warm mustard oil and applied to the scalp. In Uttar Pradesh, powdered root used for treatment of cancerous tumors. In Madya Pradesh, root powder and decoction of seeds used to treat rheumatism. Powdered bark taken with cow's milk once a day for a month to cure leucorrhea. (32)

- Poultice of roots used to treat headaches. Crushed roots used for pneumonia. Roots used to treat dysmenorrhea and to induce fertility. Also used for dysentery, diarrhea, fever. Powdered root bark used for treatment of malaria. Root decoction used as brain tonic for depression; also as laxative for cleaning the digestive system. Root bark is abortifacient and depurative. Powdered root used for treatment of tumor. In India, root or root bark paste applied on forehead of children to cure boils. Herbal mix of root of C. paniculatus and Piper longam used for leucorrhea and spermatorrhea. Powdered root or root bark taken with cow's milk once daily for a month to treat leucorrhea. (45)

- Poultice of leaves used for headaches. Leaf sap used as antidote for opium poisoning. Dried leaves used for inducing menstruation. Herbal mixture of powdered leaves, fruits, flowers, and seeds taken regularly to treat mental disorders and increase mental power. Boiled leaves applied externally to swellings and fractures. (45)