Page 74 - Major Gum Resin-E-Book

Exudate Gums

Habitat and distribution
A. leucophloea is native to large parts of South and South-East Asia, where it is found in India,
Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. It is found throughout
in India, in dry and deciduous forests.
Description
Acacia leucophloea is a large thorny tree with wide umbrella-like crown. Trunk is stout with
several large diameter branches. Bark is white to yellowish gray, smooth, exfoliating in
long strips, on old trees becoming black and rough. Leaves are bipinnately compound and
foliage is feathery green. Spines found in pairs at the base of bipinnate leaves. Flowers are
yellowish-white or cream in colour, sessile, aggregated in terminal or axillary panicles. Pods
are yellow, green or brown in colour, flat and fairly straight. Seeds are ovate.
Flowering: July - November

Fruiting: April - June
Uses of Gums
A reddish brown, water-soluble gum can be extracted from the stem bark. The gum while
coming out extracts tannins and other inherent alkaloids from bark and hence is rich with
medicinal properties. The bark extracts is used in traditional medicine as an astringent,
a bitter, a thermogenic, a styptic, a preventive of infections, an anthelmintic, a vulnery, a
demulcent, an expectorant, an antipyretic, in the treatment of bronchitis, cough, vomiting,
wounds, ulcers, diarrhea, dysentery, dental caries, stomatitis, and intermittent fevers and
skin diseases.

Major gum and resin plants of India 65