Artocarpus chama Buch.-Ham.

Family: Moraceae

Synonym:Artocarpus chaplasha Roxb.

Bengali/Vernacular name:Chapalish, Chambal, Chambul, Cham, Kathalicham.

Tribal name: Chama (Koch), Soh-chawm (Khasia), Chamkanthal (Manipuri).

English name:Monkey jack.

Description of the plant: A large deciduous tree, up to 30 m tall, with milky latex, young shoots covered with long hairs. Leaves simple, alternate, petiolate and stipulate, stipules large, amplexicaul, juvenile leaves very large, up to 90 cm long, lobed or pinnatifid, adult leaves elliptic-ovate, 15-20 X 12-16 cm, hispid, subcordate or rounded base, obtuse apex, and entire to minutely serrate margin. Flowers densely crowded on globose receptacles, solitary, and axillary. Fruit a syncarp, globose, tuberculate; seeds oblong.

Plant parts used: Leaf, bark, seed, root.

Herbal uses:A paste made with the bark of the plant is applied to the boils once a day for five days to treat boils.

Decoction prepared from the roots of the plant is given for the treatment of diarrhoea and fever.

Powder made from the dried seeds of the plant is taken to treat impotence.

Burnt ashes of leaves (preferably fresh) with coconut oil are used as ointment for thetreatment of ulcers.

A decoction prepared from the roots of the plant is taken twice a day (50 ml amount each time) for one month to treat asthma.

The plant is used for the treatment of wound and skin disease.

Distribution: The species occurs in Tangail (Madhupur), Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Sylhet districts, and the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Is this plant misidentified? If yes, please tell us….