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Gen info
There are about 400 different species
sharing similar medicinal properties. (see: Eucalyptus) The genus deglupta was described and named in 1788 by the French botanist l'Héritier.
Botany
Eucalyptus deglupta is a huge evergreen tree that may attain a
height of more than 50 meters. Trunk makes up 50 to 70% of the tree height, about 250 cm diameter, with buttresses 3 to 4 meters high. Bark is smooth, yellow and brown, becoming green after flaking. Twigs are 4-sided, often with 4 longitudinal wings. Young leaves are opposite, ovate to lanceolate; mature leaves are opposite to sub-opposite, rarely alternate, and short-petioled. Flowers are in 3 to 7 umbels in terminal or axillary panicles, with many white to pale yellow stamens 2 to 10 millimeters long. Fruit is pedicallate, hemispherical, with 3 to 4 valves, think, deltoid, exserted to 2 millimeters. Mature fruits are brown to dark brown, with 3 to 12 well-formed seeds per valve. Seeds are minute, brown, flattened, with a small terminal wing.
Distribution
- In Mindanao where they are found in the lowland primary forests.
- Planted in parks and gardens in urban areas in the Philippines, but not common.
- Also occurs in Australia, Papua New Guinea, and Indonesia.
 Constituents
• There are more
than 300 species. The species with the highest yield of volatile oils
are E. globosus, E. tereticornis, E. polyanthemos and E. citriodora.
• Volatile oil: phellandrene, aldehydes and ketone, 33%, phenol,
9%.
• Oils are in classified into: (1) medicinal, containing eucalytol
or cineol (2) industrial, containing terpenes, used in mining operations,
and (3) aromatic, as in E. citriodora.
• Stimulant, antiseptic, antimalarial.
Parts
used
Leaves.
Uses
Folkloric
• Antiseptic and deodorant:
Apply crushed leaves on affected area.
• Cough and asthma: Take decoction of leaves as tea.
• Insect repellant: Burn leaves.
• In other countries, used to combat malaria.
• Used as antiseptic gargle.
• Used for lung infects and bronchitis.
• Oil used for croup and spasmodic throat problems.
Others
• Oil: Used for sterilizing
and lubricating urethral catheters.
• Veterinary: In veterinary medicine, the oil used for influenze in horses,
distemper in dogs, and for parasitic skin infections and septicimia.
• Wood: The wood works well with machine and hand tools; used for furniture, molding, flooring, construction lumber, boat building, veneer and plywood. Limited use for charcoal. Considered too valuable for firewood.
• Fiber: Globally, most E. deglupta plantations are meant for pulp production. The wood provides a strong sulphate pulo
Availability
Wild-crafted. |
