Saraca asoca

Scientific name: Saraca asoca (Roxb.) Willde.

Family: Caesalpiniaceae

Synonym: Jonesia asoca Roxb.

Bengali/Vernacular name: Asok. Asoka, Anganapriya.

Tribal name: Moma, Paillang moma, Pingal (Chakma); Prajok (Marma); Paying (Mogh); Chakhaauo, Pluck (Murang); Licung (pangkhoa).

English name: Ashoka tree, Sorrowless tree.

Description of the plant: A small to medium-sized, evergreen tree with spreading branches. Leaves compound, paripinnate, alternate, rachis 10-23 cm long, leaflets opposite, 4-6 pairs, lamina 9-30 × 2-9 cm, narrow oblong to lanceolate, apex acute to acuminate, base acute to rounded. Inflorescence recemose, compact, branched corymbs, arising from the end of the leafy branches or nodes of old wood, often growing trunk; flowers orange-yellow to red, fragrant.

Plant parts used: Bark.

Medicinal uses: Decoction made from barks of the plant is taken in empty stomach thrice a day (100 ml amount each time) until the bloody dysentery is cured.

Fresh juice extracted from barks of the plant and adding some sugar, it is taken to treat irregular menstruation, hyperacidity.

Fresh juice extracted from barks of the plant is taken to treat menorrhagia, diarrhoea.

Distribution: It grows wild in Chittagong district, Chittagong Hill Tracts; cultivated elsewhere in the country.

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