Agathi

Overview

The species is native to South Asia and South-East Asia with possibly Indonesia as the centre of diversity. A true multi purpose tree, providing a range of foods, medicines, timber, and gum. The plant is cultivated in many tropical areas as an ornamental, a green manure crop, and in soil reclamation schemes.
 

Vernacular Names

Saysabān (Arabic), Mu tian jing (Chinese), Agati (Dutch),  Kolibribaum (German), Hadaga (Indian), Agachi (Japanese), A ga ti (Korean), Katuray (Philippines), Dok khae (Thai), So đũa (Vietnamese).
 

Agroecology

It succeeds at elevations below 1,000 m with a mean annual temperature in the range 22-30 °C, and a mean annual rainfall of 2,000 - 4,000 mm. Requires a sunny position for best growth. It succeeds in light sandy, medium, heavy clayey, pH in the range 5.5-8.5.

Morphology

• Roots -  heavily nodulate.
• Stems - straight, cylindrical bole can be 25 to 30 cm in diameter, open-branched, softwooded.
• Leaves - pinnate, 20 to 30 cm long, with 20 to 40 pairs of leaflets which are 2.5 to 3.5 cm long.
• Flowers - white, 7 to 9 cm long.
• Pods - linear, 20 to 60 cm long, 7 to 8 mm wide, green, containing 15 to 50 seeds.
• Seeds - sub-reniform, 6.5 mm × 5 mm × 3 mm, dark brown.
   

Cultivation

• Generative propagation is by seed.
• It has a hard seedcoat and may benefit from scarification before sowing to speed up germination.
• Vegetative propagation is by cuttings of half-ripe wood.
   

Chemical Constituents

• Leaves and flowers: fibre, Ca, β-carotene, thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, and ascorbic acid.
• Seeds: palmitic, stearic, oleic, linoleic acids, saponin, and galactomannan.
• Bark contains tannin and gum.
• Flower yields tannins, oleanolic acid, kaempferol, cystine, isoleucine, aspargine, phenylalanine, valine, nicotinic acid.
• Flavonoids, alkaloids, tannins, glycosides, amino acids, saponins.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• The leaves extract showed significant decrease in blood glucose, glycosylated hemoglobin, uric acid, and diminised activities of liver enzymes.
• The methanol flower extract exhibited maximum radical scavenging activity.
• Flowers inhibited cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in Dalton’s lymphoma ascites (DLA) and colon cancer cells.
• Flower extract exhibited into antibacterial activity against Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.
• The flower  exhibited growth-promoting effect on the common probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus acidophilus.
• In Java, bark is used for thrush.
• In Bombay, juice of leaves and flowers used for nasal catarrh and headaches.
• In India, flower extract used for nasal catarrh, headaches, gout, eczema, bronchitis, and pain; also as laxative and aperitif.