Alstonia scholaris

English names:
Dita - bark tree, devil’s tree.

Description:
A large evergreen tree, about 15m. high. Bark greyish-brown, thick, lenticellate, much fluted. Leaves oblong, rounded at the apex, 3-8 - verticillate, but usually crowded at the end of branches; secondary nerves parallel. Inflorescence in umbelliform cyme; flowers small, greenish - white with a strong smell. Follicles long and narrow. Seeds brown, tipped with a coma of hairs at both ends. All parts of the tree contain a milky juice.

Flowering period:
September - October.

Distribution:

Grows wild in the mountains and is cultivated as a shade tree.

Parts used:
The trunk bark, collected in spring and summer, is sun-dried or heat-dried.

Chemical composition:
The bark contains alkaloids: ditaine, echitenine, echitamine (ditamine) and echitamidine together with triterpenes: a - amyrin and lupeol.

Therapeutic uses:
The bark yields a tonic and antiseptic medicine. It is used to treat anaemia, menstrual disorders, malarial fever, colic, diarrhoea, dysentery and acute arthritis. The dosage is 1 to 3g per day, in the form of a decoction, powder, elixir or extract. A concentrated decoction of trunk bark is used as a wash in furunculosis and impetigo, and as a gargle in dental caries.

Source: Medicinal plants in Viet Nam (Institute of Materia Medica - HANOI - WHO/WPRO, 1990, 444 p.)