AMALTAS (CASSIA FISTULA)

AMALTAS

( CASSIA FISTULA)                * املتاس ،خیارشنبر

INTRODUCTION 

Amaltas is also known as "Aragvadha" in sanskrit language Khiyar shambar in unani language or Cassia fistula (botanical name) which literally means to kill diseases. It belongs to fabecaeae family. It is one of the most popular herbal plants known for its medicinal worth. It has got very effective detoxifying properties for the body, not only externally when applied to the skin but also internally. Every part of this plant contains various phytochemicals. ”

IT has been extensively used in unani system of medicine for various ailments.

·         Leaves – tannins, rhein, glucoside and sennosides.

·         Stem bark – fistucacidin, tannins, rhein and barbaloin.

·         Pulp – carbohydrates, proteins, leucin, tryptophan and glutamic acid.

·         Seeds – vermolic, sterculic and galactomannan

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT THIS HERB

In India this golden flower tree is state flower of state Kerala. Flowers have religious importance in Vishnu festival. Image of this tree is painted on Indian 20 rupees. Yellow flower of amaltas represents the Thai royalty and it is also national flower of Thailand.

HABITAT

It is deciduous and mixed-monsoon forests throughout greater parts of India, ascending to 1300 m in outer Himalaya and associated regions of south East Asia. It is also found in Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka. In India it is easily available in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. It is famous ornamental and medicinal plant

CLASSIFICATION

·         Kingdom- Plantae

·         Order - fabaels

·         Family - fabaceae

NAMES

·         English name – Purging Cassia  Laburnum 

          

·         Hindi name – Amaltas,

          

·         Sanskrit name – Aragvadha, Chaturangula, Rajvraksha, Shampaka, Suvarnaka,            Deerghafala, Swarnabhushan.

          

·         Bengali name – Sondal

          

·         Marathi Name –Bahva

          

·         Punjabi name – Girdanali

          

·         Arabic name – Kattan

          

·         Gujarati name - Garmalo

·         Telugu name – Rela

          

·         Tamil Name - Kondrem

·         Farsi name – Khiyar

*TAXONOMIC CLASSIFICATION* 

Kingdom  - Plantae Subkingdom  –  Tracheobinota Super Division -  Spermatophyta Division  -  Mangoliophyta Class   –  Magnoliopsida Sub Class  -  Rosidae Order   -  Fabales Family  -  Fabacae Genus   -  Cassia  Species  -  fistula  

MEDICINAL PROPERTY

 Amaltas widely used in UNANI system of medicine in India has been reported to possess hepatoprotective, anti-inflammatory, antitussive, antifungal and used also check wounds healing, antibacterial and regulates the hormonal imbalances 

ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTY

The antioxidant properties of 90% ethanol extracts of leaves, and 90% methanol extracts of stem bark, pulp and flowers from Indian Laburnum (Cassia fistula L.) were investigated. The antioxidant activity power was in the decreasing order of stem bark, leaves, flowers and pulp and was well correlated with the total polyphenolic content of the extracts. The reason for low antioxidant activity in 

ANTIBACTERIAL PROPERTY 

C. fistula leaves was analyzed for antibacterial effect against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213 and Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853. Formulated ointment was topically applied on the infected wound.  the healing potential of C. fistula provides a scientific rationale for the traditional use of this plant in the management of infected dermal wound and can be further investigated as a substitute to treat infected wounds without using synthetic antibiotics.

ANTIBIOTIC PROPERTY

 All the extracts exhibited antibacterial activity against Gram-positive organisms with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) between 0.078 and 2.5 mg/ml. Among the Gram-negative bacteria, only Pseudomonas aeruginosa was susceptible to the extracts

ANTIFUNGAL

A extract of c. fistula is isolated, which was confirmed as 4-hydroxy benzoic acid hydrate using X-ray crystallography. It exhibited antifungal activity against Trichophyton mentagrophytes (MIC 0.5 mg/ml) and Epidermophyton floccosum (MIC 0.5 mg/ml)

Dr. SYED ABDUL RASHEED
BUMS (INDORE)