Small tree or shrub, up to 7 m high. Leaves simple, opposite. Flowers greenish-white. Fruit is a purple drupe. The plant is extensively used in Indian traditional medicine.

Spread in tropical and subtropical regions, mostly in moist sandy soil along seacoasts and mangrove forests.

The leaves and roots are used in traditional medicine as a diuretic, stomachic and febrifuge.
The root has a warm bitter taste and agreeable smell, it is prescribed in decoction as a gentle cordial and stomachic in fevers.
The leaves are used as a galactagogue, and also to treat rheumatic arthritis; colic and flatulence; coughs, headaches and fevers.
The leaves, combined with those of Morinda citrifolia, are squeezed into water and the solution drunk twice a day to treat severe malarial fevers. A steam bath made from the leaves and young stems is breathed in as a treatment for fevers. The cooled solution is then used to bathe the body. The leaves are boiled into medicinal tea that is reputed to have analgesic effects. This home remedy is used mostly in the treatment of backaches.
A tea made from the boiled bark is used to treat neuralgia.

Related (same family) to many herbs like basil, rosemary, mint etc.

Big tree, up to 50 m tall, with a highly buttressed trunk. Compound leaves. Inhabits mangrove forests. The tree’s timber is a very durable and termite-resistant wood, making it a highly valued material. The wood can also be used to extract a dye.

Native to the Indo-Pacific. Today, it ranges from Tanzania and Madagascar through India and Australia to the Pacific Islands of Fiji and Samoa.

According to Greenpeace, large amounts of the timber sourced from illegal logging is being imported into China where are lax import rules. At the current rate of logging, the tree will be wiped out within 35 years.

Tree, noted for its fern-like leaves and flamboyant display of orange-red flowers over summer. The compound (doubly pinnate) leaves have a feathery appearance, 30-50 cm long, with 20-40 pairs of primary leaflets, each divided into 10-20 pairs of secondary leaflets.

Native and endemic to Madagascar. In many tropical parts of the world, it is grown as an ornamental tree.

The leaves, flowers, seed and bark of this plant contain a range of medicinally active compounds, though the leaves are generally the richest source of most of these compounds.
The plant is reported to have antibacterial, antidiabetic, antidiarrheal, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antimalarial, antimicrobial, antioxidant, cardio-protective, gastro-protective, hepato-protective and wound healing activity. It is used in folk medicine to treat a range of disorders, including constipation, inflammation, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, pneumonia, and malaria.
The active compounds include flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, sterols, beta-sitosterol, lupeol, tannins, carotenoids, and phenolic acids.
Flavonoids and triterpenes have been shown to have analgesic activities and the flavonoids are also powerful antioxidants.
The bark has medicinal properties.
An aqueous extract has shown emetic properties.
An aqueous extract of the flowers is active against roundworm.
The metabolite-rich fractions of the sequentially extracted flowers and seeds have shown antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Rhizopus Batticaloa and Fusarium auxospore.
A leaf decoction presumably has anti-rheumatic effects.
In eastern Nigeria the leaves are used traditionally for treating pain.
The leaves contain flavonoids, phenolic compounds, triterpenes and sterols. A methanolic extract of the leaves has shown a significant analgesic potential.
An ethanol extraction of the leaves has been shown to exert a cardio-protective effect, at least partly due to its vasodilatory and anti-inflammatory activity. It has also shown potential for improving liver and kidney functions whilst showing no negative side effects.
An essential oil obtained from the leaves has shown fungicidal properties.

It is a non-nodulating member of the Fabaceae family.

The latex has been as a medicine for sore joints.

Large shrub growing to 8 meters. When bruised or cut the branches have a spicy resinous fragrance, causing respiratory distress which can be dangerous for some individuals. The leaves are ovate and glossy while new leaves are bronze and a red cherry fruit as pictured.

Native to tropical South America’s East Coast.

No known.

The essential oil is anti-hypertensive, anti-diabetic, anti-tumor and analgesic. It has shown significant anti-inflammatory properties and is used in South America against stomach diseases.