Appakkutukka അപ്പക്കുടുക്ക ശീമപ്പഞ്ഞി

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES
A small deciduous tree 2.4-5.4m in height with smooth, ash coloured, fibrous, deeply furrowed bark containing a gum, leaves palmately 5 lobed, tomentose beneath; flowers large, golden yellow in terminal panicles appearing after the leaf fall; fruits large, pear shaped, 3-5 valved capsules; seeds numerous covered over with woolly hairs.
Dried leaves and flowers are used as stimulant, and the young leaves are used as a cooling wash for the hair. The gum-known as ‘katira gum’ is sweet, thermogenic, anodyne and sedative, and is useful in cough, diarrhoea, dysentery, pharyngitis; gonorrhoea, syphilis and trachoma.