Bombax malabaricum, samali or silk cotton tree

Bombax malabaricum, commonly known as Silk cotton tree, is a tree used in Ayurvedic traditional medicine to treat many ailments and health conditions and part of many ayurvedic traditional medicinal remedies.

Some of the properties of Bombax malabaricum documented in medical libraries and clinical trials include its anti-helicobacter, anthelmitic, vermifuge, vermicide, antimicrobial and antioxidant activities and properties. Let's see how some of those ones are being exerted by this herb.

BOMBAX MALABARICUM

Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Bombax
Common name: Silk cotton tree, Salmali, Bombax ceiba, Simul tree [17].

BOMBAX MALABARICUM ACTIVE CONSTITUENTS

Bombax malabaricum is rich in many phytochemicals, among the active constituents found in this herb we can mention:

Steroids, tannins, flavonoids, triterpenoids, saponins, cholesterol, stigmasterol, campesterol, a-amyrin, hydrocarbons, seven flavones: vicenin 2 (1), linarin (2), saponarin (3), cosmetin (4), isovitexin (5), xanthomicrol (6) and apigenin (7), cadinane sesquiterpenoids,bombamalones, bombamaloside, isohemigossypol-1-methyl ester, acid lactone, bombaxquinone, lacinilene C [8], sesquiterpene lactone, naphthoquinone [10], naphthoquinone [12], mangiferin, a xanthone and anthocyanins [15].

MALVA SYLVESTRIS PROPERTIES

ANTI-HELICOBACTER PYLORI ACTIVITY OF BOMBAX MALABARICUM

Bombax malabaricum was among the Taiwanese folk medicinal plants subject of study that demonstrated a strong anti-helicobacter pylori activity. The other herbs were Paederia scandens, Plumbago zeylanica, Anisomeles indica and Alpinia speciosa [9].

BOBAX MALABARICUM FOR THE TREATMENT OF SLEEPING SICKNESS

Some studies suggested the potential use of Bombax malabaricum for the prevention, reversal or delay of age-related diseases [2] due to the antioxidant properties exerted by this herb.

ANTHELMITIC, VERMIFUGE AND VERMICIDES PROPERTIES OF BOMBAX MALABARICUM

In some cases Bombax malabaricus leaves exerted Anthelmintic effects, a property that some plants and medicines have to help the body expel helminths or parasitic worms. Bombax malabaricum has been also used as anthelmintic in Southern Punjab of Pakistan [3]. Also to expel live parasites as Paramphistomum explanatum collected from buffalos, where Bombax malabaricum was able to expel all trematodes in less than 45 min [5].

BOBAX MALABARICUM FOR INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE

As part of polyherbal preparations against inflammatory bowel disease, Bombax malabaricum extracts showed postive effect on the clinical experiments performed in rats [5].

ANTIMICROBIAL PROPERTIES OF BOMBAX MALABARICUM

The antimicrobial properties have also been exhibited in some clinical trials and studies [7].

ANTIOXIDANT PROPERTIES OF BOMBAX MALABARICUM

Bombax malabaricum DC. (Bombacaceae) has also been used as a traditional Chinese herbal medicine for the treatment of inflammatory conditions, diarrhea, fever, chronic inflammation, catarrhal affection, and as a diuretic [6]. The antioxidant activities of extracts from Bombax malabaricum from its flowers exerted a powerful radical-scavenging activity and oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC). All Mombax malabaricum extracts exerted powerful antioxidant capacity and might be a potential source of natural antioxidants [7].

REFERENCES

[1] In vivo antitrypanosomal effects of some ethnomedicinal plants from nupeland of north central Nigeria. Mann A, Ifarajimi OR, Adewoye AT, Ukam C, Udeme EE, Okorie II, Sakpe MS, Ibrahim DR, Yahaya YA, Kabir AY, Ogbadoyi EO. Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Federal Polytechnic Bida, P. M. B. 55, Bida, Niger State, Nigeria.

[2] Are Bombax buonopozense and Bombax malabaricum possible nutraceuticals for age management? Ngwuluka NC.

[3] Anthelmintic effect of a methanol extract of Bombax malabaricum leaves on Paramphistomum explanatum. Hossain E, Chandra G, Nandy AP, Mandal SC, Gupta JK. Pharmacy College, Itaura, Chandeshwar, Azamgarh, 276128, Uttar Pradesh, India

[4] Effect of Bombax ceiba L. on spermatogenesis, sexual behaviour and erectile function in male rats. Bhargava C, Thakur M, Yadav SK. Advance Group of Pharmacy Colleges, Naramau Kanpur, India  Ravi Shankar College of Pharmacy, Bhopal, India.

[5] Protective effect of aqueous extract of Bombax malabaricum DC on experimental models of inflammatory bowel disease in rats and mice. Jagtap AG, Niphadkar PV, Phadke AS. Department of Pharmacology, Bombay College of Pharmacy, Kalina, Mumbai 400 098, India.

[6] In vitro antioxidant activity of Bombax malabaricum flower extracts. Yu YG, He QT, Yuan K, Xiao XL, Li XF, Liu DM, Wu H. Institution of Food Safety, College of Light Industry and Food Sciences, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

[7] Phytochemical investigation and biological studies of Bombax malabaricum flowers.El-Hagrassi AM, Ali MM, Osman AF, Shaaban M.  Department of Phytochemistry and Plant Systematics, National Research Centre, Dokki-Giza 12622, Egypt.

[8] Sesquiterpenoids from Bombax malabaricum. Zhang X, Zhu H, Zhang S, Yu Q, Xuan L. state Key Laboratory of Drug Research, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Shanghai Institute for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Science, 555 Zuchongzhi Road, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai 201203, People's Republic of China.

[9] Screening of anti-Helicobacter pylori herbs deriving from Taiwanese folk medicinal plants. Wang YC, Huang TL. Department of Food Science, National Chung-Hsing University, 250 Kuokuang Road, Taichung 40227, Taiwan, 402, ROC.

[10] A new sesquiterpene lactone from Bombax malabaricum. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy M, Kesava Reddy M, Gunasekar D, Marthanda Murthy M, Caux C, Bodo B. Natural Products Division, Department of Chemistry, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India.

[11] Isolation of mangiferin from Bombax malabaricum and structure revision of shamimin. Shahat AA, Hassan RA, Nazif NM, Van Miert S, Pieters L, Hammuda FM, Vlietinck AJ. Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, National Research Centre, Dokki, Cairo, Egypt.

[12] A new naphthoquinone from Bombax malabaricum. Sreeramulu K, Rao KV, Rao CV, Gunasekar D. Department of Chemistry, Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India.

[13] Chemical examination of the seeds of Bombax malabaricum. Dhar DN, Munjal RC.

[14] Study of a polysaccharide from the stamens of Bombax malabaricum flowers. Agrawal GD, Rizvi SA, Gupta PC, Tewari JD.

[15] Anthocyanins from the flowers of Bombax malabaricum. Niranjan GS, Gupta PC.

[16] Gesellschaft für Arzneipflanzenforschung (Germany), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Arzneipflanzenforschung

[17] The Review of applied entomology: Agricultural, Volume 61

[18] Image come from english Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombax {{cc-by-sa-2.0}} (del) (cur) 12:48, 30 March 2005 . . Vvenka1 (Talk) . . 945x933 (163847 bytes) ({{cc-by-sa-2.0}}) {{GFDL}})