Salvadora persica

• Botanical Name : Salvadora persica L.
• Common Name : Tooth Brush Tree, Mustard Tree, Salt Brush, Meswak, Piludi, Khari Jar
• Plant Family : Salvadoraceae
• Plant Form : Tree
• Occurrence (Sectors) : 4, 10, 22, 30
• Occurrence (Special Areas) : Gujarat Forestry Research Foundation, Aranya Van

About Salvadora persica Plant :

• Habit : A large shrub or a small tree with drooping branches.
• Leaves : Somewhat brittle, glaucous, ovate to broadly ovate, acute or rounded at the apex, petiolate.
• Inflorescence : Compound terminal and axillary panicles.
• Flowers : Yellowish in colour. Calyx minute, Corolla 4 mm long.
• Fruit : A drupe, red when ripe.
• Flowering and Fruiting Time : October onwards.
• Significance :
  • Root-bark is remarkably acrid.
  • Applied to the skin it acts as external stimulant, sometimes it raises blisters.
  • Stem-bark is warm and acrid and is given in decoction in low fever and as a stimulant and tonic in amenorrhoea.
  • Shoots and leaves are given as antidote to all poisons.
  • Leaf-juice is given in scurvy. Leaves are used as an external application in rheumatism.
  • Fruits are deobstrument, carminative and diuretic.