30. Michelia champaca, Linn.

The medicinal plant Michelia champaca is a member of the Magnoliaceae (magnolia) family. This page includes its habitat, botanical descption, medicinal uses (eg., Ayurveda), chemical constituents and history of use in modern and ancient India.

Index in Flora of British India (Hooker): 1. 42.
Roxb. 453.

Synonyms:—Michelia aurantiaca. Wall; Michelia rheede, Wight.

Sanskrit:—Champaka (campaka), Kachar; Ramyal (Beautiful); Champeya Surabhi (Fragrant); Chala; (Moving).

Vernacular:—Champa, champaka (H. and B.); Kancha-namu, champa (Uriya); Tita-sapps (Assam); Oulia champ (Nepal); Chamuti, champa, chamba (fruit) (Chamakhri, Chamoti), (Pb.); Pivala-chapha, sona chapba, kud champa (Mar.); Ras champo, champo, pilo champo (Guz.); Shampang, shembugha, shimbu, sempangam (Tam.); Shampangi-puvon, champakamu champeyamu, kanchauama, gandhaphali, hemangamu (Tel.); Sampagebuvon, sumpaghy, kola sampige, sampige (Kan.); Bongas jampacca, champakam (Mal.). Sapu, Hapu (Singhalese).

Habitat:—Commonly cultivated, but wild in the forests of the Temperate Himalaya, from Nepal Eastward,

Botanical description:—A small evergreen tree.

Bark: grey, smooth, f in. thick. 

Wood: soft even-grained; sap wood white, heartwood light olive-brown.

Young shoots: silky; branchlets pubescent. 

Stipules: convolute. 

Leaves: 8-10 by 2½-4 in. shining above, pale and glabrous or puberlous beneath.

Petioles: slender, ¾ -1½ in. 

Flowers: 2 in. diam., pale yellow or orange, fragrant; some consider the flowers strongly scented. 

Peduncles: short. Buds silky. 

Perianth-leaves: 15, deciduous, imbricate, in whorls of 3; the outer oblong, acute; the inner linear.

Fruiting spike: compact, 3-6 in. long. 

Carpels: sub-sessile, ovoid, blunt, lenticil-late, coriaceous, dorsally dehiscing. 

Stamens: numerous, many-seriate; filaments flat; anthers linear, adnate, introrse, bursting longitudinally.

Gynophore: stalked; styles short. 

Capsules: ¾in; bark brown. 

Seeds: 1-2, brown when old, bright scarlet or rosy when just mature, polished, variously angled, rounded on the back, pendulous by a white thread-like funicle, after dehiscence of the capslue, embryo minute in an abundant oily albumen.

Parts used:—The flowers, fruit, leaves, roots, root-bark, oil, bark,

Medicinal uses:—According to Sanskrit writers, the flowers are bitter and are useful in leprosy, boils and itch.

The flowers and fruits are considered bitter and cool remedies, and are used in dyspepsia, nausea and fever. The leaves, anointed with Ghi, and sprinkled over with powder of Cumin seeds, are said in the Baroda Darbar Catalogue Col. and Ind. Exhib., to be put round the head in cases of puerperal mania, delirium, and maniacal excitement,

Taylor states (Topography of Dacca) that the flowers mixed with Sesamum oil form an external application, which is often prescribed in vertigo. The flowers beaten up with oil are also applied to foetid discharges from the nostrils. According to Rumphius, the flowers are useful as a diuretic in renal diseases and in gonorrhoea. Rheede states that the dried root and root-bark, mixed with curdled milk, are useful as an application to abscesses, clearing away or maturing the inflammation, and that, prepared as an infusion, it is a valuable emenagogue.

He also states that the perfumed oil prepared from the flowers is a useful application in cephalalgia, ophthalmia, and gout, and that the oil of the seeds is rubbed over the abdomen to relieve flatulence. In Dacca, the juice of the leaves is given with honey in cases of Colic (Taylor).

In the Pharmacopoeia of India, the bark is described as having febrifuge properties. Dr. Kanay Lal Dey considers it to be an excellent substitute for guaiacum.

In the Gazetteer of Orissa, the bark is described as stimulant, expectorant and astringent; the seeds and fruit are said to be useful for healing cracks in the feet, and the root is described as purgative.

Dr. Moodeen Sheriff considers the flowers to be stimulant, autispasmodic, tonic, stomachic and carminative; and describes an infusion, decoction and tincture; particularly recommending the last.

Chemistry:—“The essential oil from yellow champaca flowers (Miclielia champuca L.) has the specific gravity 0.904—0.9107 at 30°/30° C., n D=1.4640—1.4688 at 30°C., ester value 124—146, and ester value after acetylating 199. When distilled in a vacuum it polymerises. It contains isoeugenol, benzoic acid, benzyl alcohol, benzaldehyde, cineol and p -cresol methyl ether. The white flowers (Michelia longifolia Bl.) yield an oil with the following characters specific gravity 0.897, ester value 180.0, n D=1.4470 at 30°C. It contains linalool, methyleugnol, methylethylactie acid probably in the form of the methyl or ethyl ester, and a phenolic substance possessing an odour closely resembling that of thymol. The yellow flowers contain a ketone melting at 165°—166°C., and yielding a hydrazone C16, H20 04: N. N.H C6. H5, m. pt. 161°C.”—J. Ch. I. Jan. 31st, 1912, p. 90.