Indian beech tree | Pong | Ung

Almost all parts of Indian beech tree is used for medicinal purposes. The liquor resulting from concentrating the essence of a bark of ung by boiling is used as a medicinal drink in Indonesia. Its twigs were used as tooth brush in earlier times in south India.

Ung / Indian beech tree / Pong is used for making many ayurvedic medicines some of them are

• Vilwadi Gulika – insect bite, scorpion bite, fever, toxic and psychological conditions.

• Murivenna – wound healing, pain reliever, inflammation.

• Karanja Tailam – herpes, abscess,eczema

• Maha Manjishtadi Kashayam – gout, syphilis etc

• Somaraji Tailam – Used in eczema, psoriasis etc.

Family	Fabaceae
English	Indian beech
Malayalam	pong / ung
Hindi	karanj / papar
Tamil	punku / nattam /punnai
Telugu	kanuga / Ganuga
Sanskrit	naktamala / karanj
Bengali	karanja
Marathi	karanja / karaja

Mainly ayurvedic medicines prepared from Indian beech tree is used to treat

• Worms

• Cough

• Skin related troubles

• Head aches

• Itching on skin

• Inflammation

• Wounds

• Indigestion

• Piles

• Constipation

• Whooping cough

• Loss of appetite

• Rheumatoid arthritis

• Urinary diseases

• Blood related issues

Seeds contain bitter and thick oil known as Pongamia oil. It also contains karanjin which acts as anti wormal agent.
It also contains pongamol, kanugin and demethoxy kanugin.Seeds and seed oil, flowers and stem bark yield karanjin, pongapin, pongaglabrone, kanugin, desmethoxykanugin and pinnatin.Roots and leaves give kanugin, desmethoxykanugin and pinnatin.Roots also yield a flavonol methyl ether-tetra-O-methyl fisetin.The leaves contain triterpenoids, glabrachromenes I and II, 3′-methoxypongapin and 4′-methoxyfurano -flavone also.

Seeds, seed oil and leaves are carminative, antiseptic, anthelmintic and antirheumatic.Karanjin is the principle responsible for the curative properties of the oil.Leaves-juice is prescribed in flatulence, dyspepsia, diarrhoea and cough.

The aqueous watery extract of stem bark shows significant sedative and antipyretic effects in rats, and antispasmodic effect in vitro on smooth muscles.Watery extract of seeds showed a faster recovery from induced infection and skin-burns on rats and showed significant antiviral activity against herpes simplex viruses HSV- and cell lines experimentally.