This document provides information on the plant Oroxylum indicum, including its nomenclature, habitat, morphological characteristics, cultivation practices, traditional medical uses, pharmacological actions, major chemical constituents, and commercial applications. It describes O. indicum as a semi-deciduous tree found in tropical areas of South Asia and Southeast Asia. Various parts of the plant have been used ethnomedicinally to treat conditions like fever, digestive issues, wounds, and rheumatism. Extracts from O. indicum have demonstrated anti-inflammatory, hepatoprotective, antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer properties in pharmacological studies. Major chemical constituents include compounds like oroxylin A, β-sitosterol, ursolic

1. Oroxylum indicum
(Tatelo)
Shailendra shah
Department of pharmaceutical science,
Nobel college
Pokhara University

2. Contents
 Nomenclature [1] [3]
 Habit and Habitat [1] [3]
 Macroscopic [1] [3] [4] and Microscopic Characters [2]
 Cultivation and Collection [1]
 Pharmacoepial Standards [3]
 Ethno medical Uses [5] [6]
 Pharmacological Actions [5] [6]
 Major Chemical Constituents [3]
 Commercial values and Formulations [6]

3. Oroxylum indicum (L). Vent.
Vernacular names: Tatelo, Karmakanda, Saune tatal,
Tarvare simi.
English names: Broken bones, Midnight horror,
Tree of ‘Damocles’.
Biological sources: Leaves, pod, bark, seeds, e t c …
Classification:
Kingdom: Plantae
Sub-kingdom: Angiosperms
Division: Magnoliophyta
Sub-division: Tracheophyta
Class: Magnolipsida
Order: Lamiales
Family: Bignoniaceae
Genus: Oroxylum
Species: O. indicum

4. Habit and Habitat
 Habit: Semi deciduous, short lived, flowering plant,
tree belonging to family Bignoniaceae or Trumpet
creeper.
 Habitat: Sub tropical or tropical areas in moist places
and tolerant to wide ranges of climatic variations.
 Altitude: Mostly occur at elevations of 1000 meters.
 It is widely distributed in Himalayan foothills of Nepal,
India, South China, Indo China, Bhutan.
 It is also reported to be found in Sri Lanka, Thailand,
Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam and Malaysia.
 In Nepal it is mostly distributed in edges of Himalayan
forest towards hilly region (1300 m).

5. Macroscopic and Microscopic Characters
 Deciduous tree, height 10 m.
 Soft light brown bark with corky lenticels.
 Leaves stalked, opposite, bipinnate, leaflets stalked, 6-16
cm long, 4-7 cm wide, broadly ovate, acuminate and
glabrous. Leaflets display four orders of branching;
quadripinnate.

6. continued
 Large leaf stalks wither and fall off in winter and collect
near the base of trunk appearing to look like a pile of
broken limbs of bones, so called as ‘Broken bones’.
 Flowers lurid to reddish purple outside, fetid, erect and
racemes. The tree is night- bloomer and flowers are
adapted to nocturnal pollination by bats.
 Fruit flat capsules, 1.5 m long enormous seedpods.

8. continued
The long fruits hang down from
branches resembling swords and curve
downwards resembling the wings of
large bird or dangling sickles in the
night giving the name the “Tree of
Damocles”.
• The seeds round with papery wings.

9. continued
 Under microscopic observation the powder of bark
showed fragments of cork cells polygonal or
hexagonal in shape, stone cells, fibers and
paranchymatous cells filled with black brown patches.

10. continued
 T.S. of stem bark showed outer most 10-15 layered cork
cells (171-190μm thick).
 Below cork 2-4 layered cork cambium (19.0-28.5µm thick).
 Bellow it phelloderm (15-25 cells) and (285-380µm thick).
 No. of stone cells and fibers were embedded in this region.
 Outer phloem plenty of stone cells while inner phloem
plenty of fibers. In inner phloem parenchymatous cells
filled brownish-black contents were present.
 Medullary rays are multiserriate and heterogeneous cells.
Acicular crystals were embedded in medullary rays.

14. Cultivation and Collection
 Plant prefers a fertile moisture-retentive soil in a sunny
position or light shade.
 Tolerant to wide variety of soils and climatic conditions.
 The flowers which open at night have a fetid smell which
attract bats for pollination. The tree is fairly short lived.
 It is best to pre-soak the seeds in warm water before
sowing. Germination is 50% with the seeds sprouting in
19-25 days.
 It has curious growth habit, that it grows rapidly to 5-10 m
height from seeds and flowers and further grows upward.
Lower buds then break to rise stiffly erect branches.
 Flowering: May-August
 Fruiting: October-November
 Collection can be done in these periods.

15. Pharmacopeial Standards

16. Ethno medical Uses
 In India; medicine of root bark, leaves and stem – snake bite.
 Paste of sesame oil with powder of root bark – digestive tonic.
 Leaves used externally for enlarged spleen, ulcers and
headaches.
 Bark and seeds – fever, pneumonia, stomach disorders and
respiratory troubles.
 In Nepal; root decoction – dysentery and diarrhea.
 Seeds – digestive; seed paste – boils and wounds.
 In Malaysia – to treat tooth ache, wound, splenomegaly,
gastritis, dysentery, cholera , loss of appetite and fever.
 In Philippine Islands; bark of root – diaphoretic.
 Alcoholic maceration of fresh bark – externally used as lacquer
to relieve allergic dermatitis.

17. continued
 In Vietnam folk; decoction of seeds – cough, bronchitis and
gastritis.
 In China; seeds – to cure liver and stomach problems, to heal
ulcers.
 In Burma, Vietnam and Philippines; bark – to treat dysentery
and rheumatism.
 Decoction of bark – gastric ulcer; paste – mouth cancer,
scabies and other skin diseases.
 Paste of bark – applied to animal wounds to kill maggots;
decoction of bark – to animals for deworming.
 Dried powder used by women to induce conception.
 Seed oil non- drying oil – perfume industry.
 Medicated oil of O. indicum in sesame oil base – instilled into
ears mitigates the pain in otitis.

18. continued
 Decoction of any part – used externally in childbirth.
 Roots are sweet astringent, acrid, refrigerant, aphrodisiac,
expectorant, carminative, digestive, anthelmintic, antidiabetic,
constipating, diuretic, ant arthritic and febrifuges.
 Roots tonic – dropsy, cough, sprains, neuralgia, hiccough,
asthma, bronchitis, anorexia, dyspepsia, flatulence, colic,
diarrhea, gout, vomiting, leukoderma, wounds, rheumatic
arthritis, fever.
 Root bark – stomatitis, nasopharyngeal cancer and tuberculosis.
 Matured fruit – acrid, sweet, anthelmintic, liver problem,
stomachic, cardiac, pharyngitis, gastropathy, bronchitis,
haemorrhoids, cough, piles, jaundice, dyspepsia, small pox,
leukoderma, cholera.

19. Pharmacological Actions
1. Anti-inflammatory activity:
 In in-vivo carrageenan induced rat paw edema model:
 Aqueous extract of leaves of Oroxylum indicum;
 At dose level of 150mg/kg body weight showed
significant anti-inflammatory activity.
 At dose level of 300mg/kg body weight sowed maximum
activity.
 Also aq. and alcoholic extracts of stem showed activity.
 Paw volume was significantly reduced.
 They predominantly inhibited the release of
prostaglandins like substances.
 Though all were less effective than standard diclofenac
sodium.

20. continued
 In in-vitro aq. and alcoholic extracts of stem bark reduced
myeloperoxidase.
 The flavonoids present in various parts of this plants may be
responsible for producing anti-inflammatory activity.
 All findings suggest Oroxylum indicum can be useful in
management of chronic inflammatory conditions like arthritis.
2. Hepatoprotective activity:
 In in-vivo Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4)-induced hepatotoxicity in
mice and rats;
 Ethanolic (300mg/kg), Petroleum ether (300mg/kg) and n-butanol
(300mg/kg) extracts of root, leaves and stem bark showed
significant hepatoprotective activity.
 This was indicated by reduced levels; of Serum Glutamic
Oxaloacetic acid Transaminase (SGOT), Serum Glutamic Pyruvate
Transaminase (SGPT), Alkaline Phosphatase (ALP) and Total
Bilirubin (TB); as compared to control (sylimarin) group.

21. continued
 Free radical scavenging activity was also reported and
hepatoprotective action was likely to be due to its ability to
scavenge free radicals and induce microsomal enzymes thereby
inhibition of lipid peroxidation induced by CCL4.
 This action is also possible due to presence of flavonoids and this
plant can be potentially used in various liver disorders.
3. Anthelmintic activity:
 This activity of O. indicum extract was evaluated against equine
strongyle eggs in-vitro and compared to ivermectin (one of the
most effective deworming agents).
 At dose 2x10^(-5)g/ml and greater- Delayed egg hatching.
 At dose 2x10^(-1)g/ml- 0% hatching.
 At dose 2x10^(-4)g/ml- 0% viability of eggs and larvae.
 Thus it can be appropriate anthelmintic against equine strongyles.

22. continued
4. Anticancer activity:
 Baicalein the most abundant flavonoid present in the leaves of O.
indicum was isolated and tested on viability and induction of
apoptosis in the HL-60 cell line.
 Pre-treatment with Baicalein for 24hrs. Caused 50% inhibition of
HL-60 cells at concentration of 25-30µM.
 Exposure of HL-60 cell to 10-20µM Baicalein for 36-48hrs. Caused
the cells to accumulate at S or G2M phases. This result indicated
Baicalein had anti-tumor effect on human cancer cells.
 Non-polar extracts of O. indicum (especially PHO, petroleum ether
hot extract) can effectively target estrogen negative breast cancer
cells to induce apoptosis without harming other cells at 0.05%
concentration showing cancer-specific cytotoxicity.
 Thus O. indicum is potent as anti-tumor agent.

23. continued
5. Immunostimulating activity:
 Root extract of O. indicum in n-butanol (100mg/kg body weight
OS, once a day for 22 consecutive days) were administered to
rats and immune response to sheep red blood cells (SRBC)
haemagglutinating antibody (HA) titer and delayed-type
hypersensitivity (DTH) reactions were measured.
 The n-butanol fraction caused significant rise in HA- indicating
potential humoral response.
 Also the rise in paw edema formation indicated DTH reactions.
 Additionally antioxidant property was exhibited which was
indicated by reduction in malondialdehyde content in blood, rise
in activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalases (CAT) and
reduced glutathione.
 Furthermore, histopathologic analysis of lymphoid tissues showed
and increased cellularity e g. T-lymphocytes and sinusoids, in
treatment group.

24. continued
 Therefore, O. indicum attributed both humoral and cell-mediated
immune responses along with antioxidant activity.
 This study justifies its use in immunomodulatory formulation of
Ayurveda like Chyavanprash.
6. Anti-microbial activity:
 The anti-microbial activity of various extracts of O. indicum has
been screened against 14 pathogenic bacteria (5 gram +ve & 9
gram –ve) and 7 pathogenic fungi using disk diffusion method.
 Crude ethyl acetate extract- mild to moderate activity against all
bacteria and fungi.
 Methanolic extract- little against bacteria and moderate against
fungi.
 Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of two isolated flavonoids
against Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli
and Shiegella dysenterine was found to be between 64-128µg/ml.

25. continued
7. Gastro protective activity:
 Gastro protective activity of 50% alcoholic extract of root bark of
O. indicum and its different fractions viz. petroleum ether,
chloroform, ethyl acetate and n-butanol fractions were tested in
ethanol-induced gastric mucosal damage. n-butanol was tested in
water immersion restraints stress (WIRS)-model also.
 Alcoholic extract (300mg/kg) and its different fractions (at dose of
100-300mg/kg) showed significant reduction in gastric ulceration
against ethanol induced damage. Among which n-butanol had
maximum inhibition of gastric lesions.
 In WIRS-model, n-butanol showed anti-ulcer and antioxidant
property in gastric mucosal homogenates, where it reversed
increase in ulcer index, lipid peroxidation and decrease in
superoxide dismutase, catalases and glutathione levels induced by
stress.
 This study reveals gastro protective effect of n-butanol fraction
against ethanol and WIRS-induced gastric ulcers in rats.

26. continued
8. Antioxidant activity:
 The production of different oxidative species and free radicals due
to stress leads to adverse effects on various vital organs and
tissues of body.
 In in-vitro antioxidant activity of n-butanol extract of stem and root
bar was determined by 2,2`-Azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-
sulfonic acid)diammoniumsalt (ABTS) radical cation decolorization
assay and reveals very high antioxidant activity.
 In-vitro antioxidant activity (IC50 22.7µg/ml) was highest in
methanolic extract of stem bark.
 The ethanol extract of stem bark exhibited maximum antioxidant
activity due to its free radical scavenging action in b-carotene
bleaching assays.
 Where as chloroform extract produced antioxidant activity due to
its reducing power.

27. continued
 The ethyl acetate extract (EAE) of stem bark showed lowest IC50
(0.76 mg/ml) with highest inhibition of 2,2-diphenyl-1-
picrylhydrazyl (DPPH).
 In the ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, the hexane
extract (HE) showed the highest ferric reducing ability whereas EAE
showed better antioxidant ability with the lowest IC50 (0.80 mg/ml).
 Methanolic and aqueous extracts of stem bark had diverse
therapeutic potentials. Various properties including antioxidant,
cytotoxicity, protection against oxidative damage of DNA, FRAP, free
radical (DPPH and OH-) scavenging activity as well as inhibitory
effect on lipid peroxidation was also confirmed.
9. Anti-mutagenic activity:
 Methanolic extract of O. indicum fruit strongly inhibited the
mutagenicity of Trp-P-1 in Ames test.
 In-vitro anti-mutagenic activity was done by Ames Salmonella
mutagenicity test using histidine mutants of Salmonella
typhimerium tester strands, MTCC 98, MTCC 1251 and MTCC 125.

28. continued
 The major anti-mutagenic constituent was identified as
Baicalein with an IC50 value of 2.78±0.15 µm.
 The potent anti-mutagenicity of extract was correlated with
high content (3.95±0.43%, dry weight) of Baicalein. Baicalein
acted as desmutagen since it inhibited the N – hydroxylation
of Trp – P – 2.
 Methanolic extracts of the fruits of Oroxylum indicum inhibited
the in – vitro proliferation of HL – 60 cells and flavonoid
Baicalein was found to be an active component in the extract.

32. Major Chemical Constituents

33. Compound names References
1. Oroxylin A Rao et al., 2002 &
Vasanth et al.,1991.
2. Β – sitosterol Dinda et al., 2007.
3. Ursolic acid Suratwadea et al., 2002.
4. Adenosine Yan et al., 2011.
5. Scultelarein Dinda et al., 2007.
6. Dimethyl sulfone Yan et al., 2011.
7. Lupeol “

37. Commercial values and Formulations
 Oroxylum indicum has a number of medicinal properties and
various parts of this plant have been used in Ayurvedic
preparations.
 The large pods of this plants are sold at market downtown,
Bangkok, Thailand.
 The tree is often grown as an ornamental plant for its strange
appearance.
 Materials used include woods, tannins and dyes stuffs.
 Extracts of this plants are also used in herbal tea formulations
like vata and kapha.
 It is also used in mentat ( mind care ) syrup preparations.
 Important ingredient in ayurvedic formulations like
Chyawanprash, Dashmularisht, e t c …

39. References
1. URL- https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Oroxylum_indicum
(accessed on June 16).
2. Bisht A, Zaman K, Singh M, Gupta R and Singh V (2011),
Pharmacognostical Studies on Oroxylum indicum (Linn.) Vent.
Stem Bark Indian Journal of Natural Products and Resources,
Vol. 2(4), Dec. 2011, pp. 472-478.
3. Deka DC, Kumar V, Prasad C, Kumar K, Gogoi BJ, Singh L and
Srivastava RB Oroxylum indicum-a medicinal plant of North
east India: An overview of its nutritional, remedial and
prophylactic properties Journal of Applied Pharmaceutical
Science 2013; Vol. 3 (Suppl. 1): 104-112.
4. Zaveri M and Jain S (2010), Phytopharmacognostical Studies
on Root Bark of Oroxylum indicum, VENT. International Journal
of Pharmaceutical Sciences Review & Research, Volume 4,
Issue 1, September-October 2010, Article 024. pp 132-133.

40. continued
5. Lawania R D, Mishra A, Gupta R (2010), Oroxylum
indicum: A Review Pharmacognosy Journal May 2010,
VOL.2, ISSUE 9, pp: 304-310.
6. Joshi N, Shukla A & Nailul TK (2014), Taxonomic &
Phytomedical Properties of Oroxylum indicum (L.) vent.:
A Wonderful Gift of Nature Journal of Medicinal Plant
Research, 10 October 2014, VOL. 8(38), pp. 1148-
1155.