Pongamia pinnata (L.) Pierre
Syn.: Pongamia glabra Vent.
Derris indica Bennet
Pongam, Indian beech
Source: James A. Duke. 1983. Handbook of Energy Crops. unpublished.
- Folk Medicine
- Yields and Economics
- Biotic Factors
The pongam tree is cultivated for two purposes: (1) as an ornamental in gardens
and along avenues and roadsides, for its fragrant Wisteria-like flowers, and
(2) as a host plant for lac insects. It is appreciated as an ornamental
throughout coastal India and all of Polynesia. Well-decomposed flowers are
used by gardeners as compost for plants requiring rich nutrients. In the
Philippines the bark is used for making strings and ropes. The bark also
yields a black gum that is used to treat wounds caused by poisonous fish. In
wet areas of the tropics the leaves serve as green manure and as fodder. The
black malodorous roots contain a potent fish-stupefying principle. In
primitive areas of Malaysia and India root extracts are applied to abscesses;
other plant parts, especially crushed seeds and leaves are regarded as having
antiseptic properties. The seeds contain pongam oil, a bitter, red brown,
thick, non-drying, nonedible oil, 2736% by weight, which is used for tanning
leather, soap, as a liniment to treat scabies, herpes, and rheumatism and as an
illuminating oil (Burkill, 1966). Also used for lubrication and indigenous
medicine. Pongam oil showed inhibitory effects on Bacillus anthracis,
Bacillus mycoides, Bacillus pulilus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas mangiferae,
Salmonella typhi, Sarcina lutea, Staphylococcus albus, Staphylococcus
aureus, and Xanthomonas campestris, but did not inhibit
Shigella sp. (Chaurasia and Jain, 1978). The oil has a high content of
triglycerides, and its disagreeable taste and odor are due to bitter flavonoid
constituents, pongamiin and karanjin. The wood is yellowish white, coarse,
hard, and beautifully grained, but is not durable. Use of the wood is limited
to cabinetmaking, cart wheels, posts, and fuel (Allen and Allen, 1981). Both
the oil and residues are toxic. Still the presscake is described as a "useful
poultry feed." Seeds are used to poison fish. Still it is recommended as a
shade tree for pastures and windbreak for tea. The leaves are said to be a
valuable lactagogue fodder, especially in arid regions. It is sometimes
intercropped with pasture, the pasture grasses said to grow well in its shade
(NAS, 1980a). Dried pongam leaves are used in stored grains to repel insects.
Leaves often plowed green manure, thought to reduce nematode infestations. Its
into ground as spreading roots make it valuable for checking erosion and
stabilizing dunes. Twigs are used as a chewstick for cleaning the teeth. The
ash of the wood is used in dyeing.
According to Hartwell (19671971), the fruits and sprouts are used in folk
remedies for abdominal tumors in India, the seeds for keloid tumors in Sri
Lanka, and a powder derived from the plant for tumors in Vietnam. In
sanskritic India, seeds were used for skin ailments. Today the oil is used as
a liniment for rheumatism. Leaves are active against Micrococcus; their
juice is used for colds, coughs, diarrhea, dyspepsia, flatulence, gonorrhea,
and leprosy. Roots are used for cleaning gums, teeth, and ulcers. Bark is
used internally for bleeding piles. Juices from the plant, as well as the oil,
are antiseptic. It is said to be an excellent remedy for itch, herpes, and
pityriasis versicolor. Powdered seeds are valued as a febrifuge, tonic and in
bronchitis and whooping cough. Flowers are used for diabetes. Bark has been
used for beriberi. Juice of the root is used for cleansing foul ulcers and
closing fistulous sores. Young shoots have been recommended for rheumatism.
Ayurvedic medicine described the root and bark as alexipharmic, anthelmintic,
and useful in abdominal enlargement, ascites, biliousness, diseases of the eye,
skin, and vagina, itch, piles, splenomegaly, tumors, ulcers, and wounds; the
sprouts, considered alexeteric, anthelmintic, apertif, and stomachic, for
inflammation, piles and skin diseases; the leaves, anthelmintic, digestive, and
laxative, for inflammations, piles and wounds; the flowers for biliousness and
diabetes; the fruit and seed for keratitis, piles, urinary discharges, and
diseases of the brain, eye, head, and skin, the oil for biliousness, eye
ailments, itch, leucoderma, rheumatism, skin diseases, worms, and wounds.
Yunani use the ash to strengthen the teeth, the seed, carminative and
depurative, for chest complaints, chronic fevers, earache, hydrocele, and
lumbago; the oil, styptic and vermifuge, for fever, hepatalgia, leprosy,
lumbago, piles, scabies, and ulcers.
Reported to contain alkaloids demethoxy-kanugin, gamatay, glabrin,
glabrosaponin, kaempferol, kanjone, kanugin, karangin, neoglabrin, pinnatin,
pongamol, pongapin, quercitin, saponin, b-sitosterol, and tannin. Air-dry
kernels have 19.0% moisture, 27.5% fatty oil, 17.4% protein, 6.6% starch, 7.3%
crude fiber, and 2.4% ash. Fatty acid composition: palmitic, 3.77.9%, stearic
2.48.9, arachidic 2.24.7, behenic 4.25.3, lignoceric 1.13.5, oleic, 44.571.3, linoleic 10.818.3, and eicosenoic 9.512.4%. Destructive distillation
of the wood yields, on a dry weight basis: charcoal 31.0%, pyroligneous acid
36.69, acid 4.3%, ester 3.4%, acetone 1.9%, methanol 1.1%, tar 9.0%, pitch and
losses 4.4%, and gas 0.12 cu m/kg. Manurial values of leaves and twigs are
respectively: nitrogen 1.16, 0.71; phosphorus (P2O5), 0.14, 0.11; potash (K2O),
0.49, 0.62; and lime (CaO), 1.54, 1.58%. Such manure reduces the incidence of
Fast growing, glabrous, deciduous, tree to ca 25 m tall, branchesdrooping;
trunk diameter to 60 cm; bark smooth, gray. Leaves imparipinnate, shiny; young
leaves pinkish red, mature leaves glossy, deep green; leaflets 59, the
terminal leaflet larger than the others; stipels none; stipules caducous.
Flowers fragrant, white to pinkish, paired along rachis in axillary, pendent,
long racemes or panicles; calyx campanulate or cup-shaped, truncate,
short-dentate, lowermost lobe sometimes longer; standard suborbicular, broad,
usually with 2 inflexed, basal ears, thinly silky-haired outside; wings
oblique, long, somewhat adherent to the obtuse keel; keel petals coherent at
apex; stamens monadelphous, vexillary stamen free at the base but joined with
others into a closed tube; ovary subsessile to short-stalked, pubescent; ovules
2, rarely 3; style filiform, upper half incurved, glabrous; stigma small,
terminal. Pod short stalked, oblique-oblong, flat, smooth, thickly leathery to
subwoody, indehiscent, 1-seeded; seed thick, reniform (Allen and Allen, 1981).
Reported from the Hindustani Center of Diversity, pongam, or cvs thereof, is
reported to tolerate drought, frost, heat, limestone, salinity, sand, and
shade. (2n = 22)
An Indomalaysian species, a medium-sized subevergreen tree, common on alluvial
and coastal situations from India to Fiji, from sealevel to 1200 m. Now found
in Australia, Florida, Hawaii, India, Malaysia, Oceania, Philippines, and
Seychelles, for example.
Probably ranges from Tropical Dry to Moist through Subtropical Dry to Moist
Forest Life Zones. Withstanding temperatures slightly below 0°C to 50°C
and annual rainfall of 525 dm, the tree grows wild on sandy and rocky soils,
including oolitic limestone, but will grow in most soil types, even with its
roots in salt water.
Seeds, remaining viable for sometime, require no special scarification. Direct
sowing is usually successful. Seedlings transplant easily from the nursery
after about a year. Root suckers are rather plentiful as well. It is a
rapid-growing coppice species that can be cloned.
Pods are collected and shells removed by hand. Grown in 30-year rotations for
fuel in West Bengal.
Trees of ten reach adult height in 4 or 5 years, bearing at the age of 47
years. A single tree is said to yield 990 kg seed per tree, indicating a
yield potential of 9009000 kg seed/ha, 25% of which might be rendered as oil
(assuming 100 trees/ha). In general, Indian mills extract 2427.5% oil,
village crushers, 1822% oil.
Wherever it is grown, the wood (calorific value 4,600 kcal/kg) is burned for
cooking fuel (NAS, 1980a). The thick oil from the seeds is used for
illumination, as a kerosene substitute, and lubrication. It would seem that
with upgraded germplasm one could target for 2 MT oil and 5 MT firewood per
hectare per year on a renewable basis. The oil has been tried as fuel in
diesel engines, showing a good thermal efficiency (C.S.I.R., 19481976).
Two rhizobial strains produced nodules on 18 species of 12 different genera in
the cowpea miscellany. The strains, culturally and physiologically typical of
slow-growing rhizobia, elicited ineffective responses on Clitoria
ternatea and Stizolobium utile. One was ineffective on Lespedeza
stipulacea and Samanea saman. Browne (1968) lists: Viruses. Sandal
Spike Virus. Fungi. Fusicladium pongamiae, Ganoderma lucidum, Phyllachora
pongamiae, Ravenelia hobsoni, Ravenelia stictica. Angiospermae.
Cuscuta reflexa, Loranthus sp. (?). Acarina. Eriophyes
cheriani. Diptera. Microdiplosis pongamiae, Myricomyia pongamiae.
Hemiptera. Coptosoma cribrarium, Drosicha stebbingi, Drosichiella
tamarinda. Lepidoptera. Acrocercops anthracuris, Amphion floridensis,
Cydia balanoptycha, Cydia perfricta, Eresia jumbah, Indarbela tetraonis,
Jamides celeno, Phyllonorycter virgulata. Orthoptera. Schistocerca
gregaria. Thysanoptera. Megalurothrips distalis.
Complete list of references for Duke, Handbook of Energy Crops
- Allen, O.N. and Allen, E.K. 1981. The Leguminosae. The University of Wisconsin
Press. 812 p.
- Burkill, J.H. 1966. A dictionary of economic products of the Malay peninsula.
Art Printing Works, Kuala Lumpur. 2 vols.
- Chaurasia, S.C. and Jain, P.C. 1978. Antibacterial activity of essential oils
of four medicinal plants. Indian J. Hosp. Pharm. 15(6):166168.
- C.S.I.R. (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research). 19481976. The wealth
of India. 11 vols. New Delhi.
- Hartwell, J.L. 19671971. Plants used against cancer. A survey. Lloydia 3034.
- N.A.S. 1980a. Firewood crops. Shrub and tree species for energy production.
National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC.
Last update January 8, 1998 by aw