|  Botany
· Large umbraculiform tree
growing over 20 meters high, providing shade and also lending to popularity
for use in carving, wood basins and bowls.
· Bark is rough and furrowed.
· Branches, widespread.
· Leaves, bipinnate and hairy underneath.
· Flowers, borne in peduncles, clusters of axillary, pink-green.
· Fruits: pods are dark, fleshy , 15-20 cm long, 2 cm wide, with
a pulpy sweet mesocarp.
Constituents
· Saponin-lik e alkaloid
pithecolobin has been isolated from the bark and the seed.
· Alkaloids are said to be abundant in the bark, stems,
leaves, and seeds.
· Leaves and stems have saponin and tannin; gum from the trunk.
Distribution
Throughout the Philippines
in waste places along roads and trails in fallow, rice paddies,
etc.
Parts
utilized:
· Entire plant.
· Collect from May to October.
· Rinse and sun-dry.
Properties
Slightly acidic tasting, cooling.
Antipyretic, stomachic, astringent and antidermatoses.
Antimicrobial
Uses
Folkloric
· Acute bacillary dysentery,
enteritis, diarrhea: use 15 to 30 gms dried material in decoction.
· Also for colds, sore throat, headache.
· A decoction of the inner bark or fresh cambium and leaves is
used to treat diarrhea.
· Anaphylactic dermatitis, eczema, skin pruritus: use decoction
of fresh material and apply as external wash.
· Latex used as gum arabic for gluing.
· In Venezuela,
rain tree is a traditional remedy for colds, diarrhea, headache, intestinal
ailments and stomach ache.
· Root decoction used in hot baths for stomach cancer.
· In the West Indies,
the leaf infusion is used as a laxative and seeds chewed for sore throat.
· The alcoholic extract of leaves used for tuberculosis.
· In Columbia,
the fruit decoction is used as a sedative.
Others
· Seasonally copious pods with sweet pulp that can be grounded
and converted to fodder and alcohol as an energy source. It is also
an important honey plant like most mimosaceous trees
 .
Studies
• Studies have suggested antimycobacterial antimicrobial activity
in the crude extracts of acacia.
• Preliminary phytochemical screening
and antimicrobial activity of Samanea saman: A study
of the aqueous plant extract on three organisms (Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus
aureus and Candida albicans) showed inhibitory activity against all
the tested organisms. Phytochemical screening revealed tannins, flavanoids,
saponins, steroids, cardiac glycosides and terpenoids. The study validates
the use of the plant in traditional medicine.
• Antibacterial:
A methanol extract from leaves showed a highly significant antibacterial
activity in vitro for Xanthomonas pathovars and for human pathogenic
bacteria.
• Larvicidal: If 112 medicinal plant species collected in Thailand, Samanea saman (stem bark) was one of 14 plants that exhibited high toxicity to the fourth instar larvae of Aedes aegypti in preliminary screening.
Availability
Wild-crafted.
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