Description

• Pterocarpussantalinus, a small to medium-sized, deciduous tree with bark blackish brown, yielding a deep red latex when cut; heartwood extremely hard, dark purple.
• Leaves usually imparipinnate, broadly ovate.
• Flowers yellow, borne a few together in simple or sparingly branched racemes; calyx teeth minute, deltoid.
• Fruit is a pod.

Uses

• The heartwood is ground to a powder and used as a red food colouring in a range of foods, but especially in commercial spice blends and sauces.
• The wood, used in the form of a powder or chips, is anti-inflammatory, astringent and tonic.
• A paste of the wood is brewed as a tea in the treatment of chronic dysentery and is used to make a treatment for diabetes and as a boost for the immune system.
• The wood is an ingredient of many medicinal oils and pharmaceutical preparations in India.