Senegalia rugata

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Senegalia rugata
Acacia concinna Blanco2.374-cropped.png
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Caesalpinioideae
Clade: Mimosoid clade
Genus: Senegalia
Species:
S. rugata
Binomial name
Senegalia rugata
Synonyms [1]
Shikakai (Senegalia rugata) seed pods Shikakai (Senegalia rugata) seed pods.jpg
Shikakai (Senegalia rugata) seed pods

Senegalia rugata is a spiny climbing shrub native to China and tropical Asia, common in the warm plains of central and south India. [2] [1] It is renowned as a raw material for shampoo, and the leaves and young shoots are often eaten. Archaeobotanical evidence shows its use for hair care in the pre-Harrapan levels of Banawali, some 45004300 years ago.

Contents

Description

A woody climber, shrub, or small tree up to 5 metres (16 ft) tall, with numerous spines. [3] [4] Leaves are bipinnate. Cream to pale-yellow flowers, though buds are red to purplish-red and when the flowers are open they appear cream. The seed pods are distinctive. When fresh, they are smooth, thick, and fleshy; however, when they dry, they become wrinkled, blackish, and very hard. [5]

Distribution

The species is native to Asia, including China. [1] [6] [5] [3] Countries and regions to which it is native include: Papua New Guinea (Eastern New Guinea); Indonesia (West Papua, Kai Islands, Sulawesi, Nusa Tenggara, Maluku, Jawa, Sumatera); Philippines; Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia); Thailand; Cambodia; Vietnam; Zhōngguó/China (Guangdong, Yunnan); Laos; Myanmar; India (Andaman Islands, Assam), Bangladesh, Nepal, East Himalaya. It has been introduced/naturalized to the following countries/regions: Nouvelle Caledonie; Australia (Queensland); Japan (Okinawa); Réunion; Madagascar; Seychelles; Brazil (southeast); Jamaica[ citation needed ]

The species is invasive in countries around the world, including New Caledonia. [7]

Habitat and ecology

In the Philippines the plant occurs in low and medium elevation thickets. [8] The species grows both in the forest and within villages in Chiang Mai Province, Thailand. [9] S. rugata grows in forest or thickets in Zhōngguó/China, most commonly near watercourses in valleys, at an altitude of between 880 and 1,500 metres (2,890 and 4,920 ft). [3]

The tree is food for the larvae of the butterfly Pantoporia hordonia . [10]

Archaeobotany

Pre-Harappan level of Banawali (27502500 BC), Haryana have revealed traces of a mixture of Shikakai with soap nuts and Amla (Indian Gooseberry), exhibiting ancient roots of South Asian hygiene. [11]

Vernacular names

Uses

Shikakai in hair care

Senegalia rugata has been used traditionally for hair care in the Indian Subcontinent since ancient times. It is one of the Ayurvedic medicinal plants. It is traditionally used as a shampoo [18] and it is also added in synthetic Ayurvedic shampoos. It is widely known as shikakai, from Tamil சிகைக்காய் cikaikkāy (cikai 'hair'+kāy 'fruit'). In order to prepare it, the fruit pods, leaves and bark of the plant are dried, ground into a powder, then made into a paste. While this traditional shampoo does not produce the normal amount of lather that a sulfate-containing shampoo would, it is considered a good cleanser. It is mild, having a naturally low pH, and does not strip hair of natural oils. An infusion of the leaves has been used in anti-dandruff preparations. [19]

Senagalia rugata extracts are used in natural shampoos or hair powders and the tree is now grown commercially in India and Far East Asia. [20] The plant parts used for the dry powder or the extract are the bark, leaves or pods. The bark contains high levels of saponins, which are foaming agents found in several other plant species used as shampoos or soaps. Saponin-containing plants have a long history of use as mild cleaning agents. Saponins from the plant's pods have been traditionally used as a detergent, and in Bengal for poisoning fish; they are documented to be potent marine toxins.[ citation needed ]

In Myanmar, the fruit is mixed with the bark of the tayaw (Grewia) tree and sometimes lime to make the traditional tayaw kinpun shampoo. [21] Shampooing with tayaw kinpun has been an important tradition in Burmese culture since ancient times. Burmese kings used to wash their hair with tayaw kinpun during the royal hair-washing ceremony (ခေါင်းဆေး မင်္ဂလာပွဲ), in the belief that using the shampoo would cast away bad luck and bring good luck. [22] It remains customary for many Burmese people to wash their heads with tayaw kinpun, especially on the Burmese New Year's Day to leave behind impurities and bad omens of the past, [23] [24] and the shampoo is commonly sold in the country's open-air markets, typically in plastic bags. [25] [26]

Food, medicine, and other uses

This species is used in a variety of ways in Cambodia. [16] The young leaves are included in salads. The fruit is used for washing hair and in local medicine. To treat abscesses, eczema and leprosy the fruit can also be used externally or as a laxative when they are taken internally. The pulp of the fruit, without the seeds, is used as a diuretic and emetic, while the seeds are reputed to make delivery in childbirth easier.[ citation needed ]

Traditional healers of Nakhon Nayok Province, Thailand, use the leaves of this species to treat irregular menstruation. [17]

Amongst the Karen people of Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, the plant is one of the most widely used legumes. [9] They use the fruit in a cold infusion both as soap and shampoo, and as a medicine for food poisoning. The dried fruit is used in holy water for the rituals to pay respect to elderly people and to evict wickedness.

Investigating plant use amongst both Karen and Lawa people living in Pang Hin Fon district (Chiang Mai), S. rugata was one of the plants that provided both food and health-products. [15] The young shoots and leaves are cooked in a soup, the fruit are eaten raw or cooked, while the bark was chewed and kept as a quid in the mouth to counter-act toothache, and a decoction of the fruit was used as shampoo.[ citation needed ]

An infusion of the leaves of Senagalia rugata has also been used for therapy of jaundice in the traditional Indian medicine. [27]

In Nepal, the plant is one of many that are processed and sold in the medicinal products industry. [28] In 2004, an estimated 2,459 kilograms (5,421 lb) of material was purchased nationwide by the industry at an average price of 80 Nepalese rupees. Central wholesalers provided the raw material.

Flowers Acacia concinna.jpg
Flowers

The leaves have an acidic taste and are used in chutneys.

Chemical constituents

Alkaloids are found in the tree's fruit. [29] In commercial extracts, when the plant is hydrolyzed it yields lupeol, spinasterol, acacic acid, lactone, and the natural sugars glucose, arabinose and rhamnose. It also contains hexacosanol, spinasterone, oxalic acid, tartaric acid, citric acid, succinic acid, ascorbic acid, and the alkaloids calycotomine and nicotine.

History

The two American botanists, Nathaniel Lord Britton (18591934, co-founder of the New York Botanical Garden), and Joseph Nelson Rose (18621928, of the Smithsonian), first described the taxa in 1928 in the publication North American Flora (vol. 23[2]: 120, published by the New York Botanical Garden. [30] This taxa was subsumed into the well-known species Acacia concinna, however with advances in DNA analysis and consequent revision of plant phylogeny, the species S. rugata was recognized as having precedence in 2015 by Maslin and others. [6] The epitaph rugata is derived from rugatus (Latin), meaning 'wrinkled', referring to the state of the pods when dry. [3]

Related Research Articles

<i>Acacia sensu lato</i> Genus of legumes

Acacia s.l., known commonly as mimosa, acacia, thorntree or wattle, is a polyphyletic genus of shrubs and trees belonging to the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae. It was described by the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus in 1773 based on the African species Acacia nilotica. Many non-Australian species tend to be thorny, whereas the majority of Australian acacias are not. All species are pod-bearing, with sap and leaves often bearing large amounts of tannins and condensed tannins that historically found use as pharmaceuticals and preservatives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mimosoideae</span> Subfamily of legumes

The Mimosoideae are a traditional subfamily of trees, herbs, lianas, and shrubs in the pea family (Fabaceae) that mostly grow in tropical and subtropical climates. They are typically characterized by having radially symmetric flowers, with petals that are twice divided (valvate) in bud and with numerous showy, prominent stamens.

<i>Vachellia farnesiana</i> Species of plant

Vachellia farnesiana, also known as Acacia farnesiana, and previously Mimosa farnesiana, commonly known as sweet acacia, huisache, casha tree, or needle bush, is a species of shrub or small tree in the legume family, Fabaceae. Its flowers are used in the perfume industry.

<i>Acacia</i> Genus of plants

Acacia, commonly known as wattles or acacias, is a genus of about 1,084 species of shrubs and trees in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the pea family Fabaceae. Initially, it comprised a group of plant species native to Africa, South America, and Australasia, but is now reserved for species mainly from Australia, with others from New Guinea, Southeast Asia, and the Indian Ocean. The genus name is Neo-Latin, borrowed from the Greek ἀκακία, a term used in antiquity to describe a preparation extracted from Vachellia nilotica, the original type species.

<i>Vachellia nilotica</i> Species of flowering plant in the bean family Fabaceae

Vachellia nilotica, more commonly known as Acacia nilotica, and by the vernacular names of gum arabic tree, babul, thorn mimosa, Egyptian acacia or thorny acacia, is a flowering tree in the family Fabaceae. It is native to Africa, the Middle East and the Indian subcontinent. It is also considered a 'weed of national significance' and an invasive species of concern in Australia, as well as a noxious weed by the federal government of the United States.

<i>Senegalia laeta</i> Species of plant

Senegalia laeta, the gay acacia or daga, is a legume found in the family Fabaceae. It was formerly included in the genus Acacia.

Vachellia nilotica subsp. indica is a perennial tree native to Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Nepal and Pakistan. It is also cultivated in Angola, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Common names for it include babul, kikar and prickly acacia.

<i>Archidendron pauciflorum</i> Species of plant

Archidendron pauciflorum, commonly known as djenkol, jengkol or jering, is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is native to Southeast Asia, where the seeds are also a popular dish. They are mainly consumed in Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, and Vietnam, prepared by frying, boiling, or roasting, and eaten raw. The beans are mildly toxic due to the presence of djenkolic acid, an amino acid that causes djenkolism. The beans and leaves of the djenkol tree are traditionally used for medicinal purposes, such as purifying the blood. To date, djenkol is traded on local markets only.

<i>Acaciella</i> Genus of legumes

Acaciella is a Neotropical genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, and its subfamily Mimosoideae. Its centre of diversity is along the Mexican Pacific coast. They are unarmed, have no extrafloral nectaries and the polyads of their pollen are 8-celled. Though its numerous free stamens is typical of Acacia s.l., it has several characteristics in common with genus Piptadenia. Its pollen and free amino acids resemble that of Senegalia. Molecular studies place it sister to a monophyletic clade comprising elements of genus Acacia, and the tribe Ingeae. A nectary ring is present between the stamens and ovary, in common with Acacia subg. Aculeiferum.

<i>Senegalia</i> Genus of plants in the Fabaceae family, almost worldwide

Senegalia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the Mimosoid clade. Until 2005, its species were considered members of Acacia. The genus was considered polyphyletic and required further division, with the genera Parasenegalia and Pseudosenegalia accepted soon after.

<i>Vachellia</i> Genus of legumes

Vachellia is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family, Fabaceae, commonly known as thorn trees or acacias. It belongs to the subfamily Mimosoideae. Its species were considered members of genus Acacia until 2009. Vachellia can be distinguished from other acacias by its capitate inflorescences and spinescent stipules. Before discovery of the New World, Europeans in the Mediterranean region were familiar with several species of Vachellia, which they knew as sources of medicine, and had names for them that they inherited from the Greeks and Romans.

<i>Vachellia reficiens</i> Species of legume

Vachellia reficiens, commonly known as red-bark acacia, red thorn, false umbrella tree, or false umbrella thorn, is a deciduous tree or shrub of the pea family (Fabaceae) native to southern Africa, often growing in an upside-down cone shape and with a relatively flat crown.

<i>Senegalia modesta</i> Species of legume

Senegalia modesta is a species of plant commonly found in Pakistan, India and Afghanistan. S. modesta is a perennial tree and formerly, it was classified as Acacia modesta. The plant is drought tolerant. S. modesta`s tree grow in medium size deciduous form with rough surfaced, brown or greenish grey bark, leaflets as, cream colored inflorescence in the form of pedunculate spike, pods as stipitate having 3-5 seeds inside.

<i>Acacia rhodophloia</i> Species of legume

Acacia rhodophloia, commonly known as minni ritchi or western red mulga, is a tree or shrub belonging to the genus Acacia and the subgenus Juliflorae that is endemic to a large area of arid central western Australia. The Indigenous group the Kurrama peoples know the plant as mantaru.

<i>Acacia quinquenervia</i> Species of legume

Acacia quinquenervia is a shrub of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Phyllodineae that is endemic to south western Australia

<i>Acacia sericophylla</i> Species of legume

Acacia sericophylla is a shrub or tree commonly known as the desert dogwood, desert oak or cork-bark wattle. To the Indigenous Australian people of the Pilbara, the Nyangumarta peoples, it is known as Pirrkala. The species is of the genus Acacia and the subgenus Plurinerves.

Senegalia thailandica is a species of climbing or sprawling shrub in the family Fabaceae.

Senegalia megaladena is a spiny climber, shrub or tree, native to Jawa, and from mainland Southeast Asia to China and India. It is eaten as a vegetable and used as a fish poison. It is named after its distinctive large gland on the petioles.

<i>Tayaw kinpun</i> Traditional shampoo used in Myanmar

Tayaw kinpun is a traditional shampoo used in Myanmar. Its main ingredients are the bark of the tayaw (Grewia) tree and the soapy kinpun fruit. Lime may also be added to the mix. Shampooing with tayaw kinpun has been an important tradition in Burmese culture since ancient times. Burmese kings used to wash their hair with tayaw kinpun during the royal hair-washing ceremony, in the belief that using the shampoo would cast away bad luck and bring good luck. Today, it is still customary for many Burmese people to wash their heads with tayaw kinpun on the Burmese New Year's Day to leave behind impurities and bad omens of the past.

References

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