Distribution and habitat: Found throughout India.

Botany: A small evergreen tree up to 7 m in height with thin, smooth, light grey bark and white wood. 

• Leaves:  Simple, alternate, very thick, lanceolate, elliptic or oblong shortly acuminate at the apex, irregularly crenate or serrate.
• Flowers : Yellowish white, fragrant, in close clusters, in axillary spikes.
• Fruits : Globose, purple, ribbed drupes; seeds 1-3, testa thin.
• Bark : Greyish green to slight grey with patches of crustose lichens. The outer bark is thin and the inner greenish or light brown, the cut surface of the thick bark of a mature tree is reddish brown on drying; when broken, short fibre tips are seen.

Uses: Neurotonic, hypotensive, anti-inflammatory, treatment of arthritis, tumors, bronchitis, leucorrhoea, gonorrhea, ophthalmic, bleeding of gums and menorrhagia.

Propagation: Seed