The genus Cinnamomum

Other Useful Species of Cinnamomum 349
C. wightii is a high elevation species endemic to the Western Ghats, especially in the
Nilgiris above 2000 m elevation.
The dried infructescenes, immature fruits and even the leaf galls are reportedly used
as Madras nagakesara (Anandkumar et al., 1986). Nagakesara is a crude drug in
Ayurveda, used as deodorant, diaphoretic and stimulant, as an appetiser, brain tonic,
anti-medic, anthelmintic, aphrodisiac, diuretic and antidote. Mesua ferrea Linn.
(Clusiaceae) is regarded as the real ‘Nagakesara’ (north Indian nagakesara) by most
practitioners, while the dried inflorescence and immature fruits of C. wightii is traded
as ‘Madras nagakesara’. The dried fruits of Dillenia pentagyna Roxb. are also sold as
‘Malabar nagakesara’. Anandkumar et al. (1986) have made a comparative pharmacognostic
study of the three sources of nagakesara.
C. wightii is a small to medium sized tree. The leaf and young shoots have a large
number of leaf galls. The flower pedicel has a single layered epidermis containing
tannin deposits. The cortex is parenchymatous, and stone and oil cells are found
scattered in the cortical tissue. Pericyclic fibres form a cap over the vascular bundles.
There are 12–17 vascular bundles arranged in a circle. The pith is parenchymatous and
contains oil cells. Perianth lobes in surface view are sclerenchymatous with thick-walled
unicellular trichomes. In CS the epidermis of perianth is sclerenchymatous with thickwalled
unicellular trichomes. The ground tissue is parenchymatous having many oil
cells. The vascular strands are concentric, and the tracheids are spirally thickened with
simple perforation. The fruit wall in surface view shows small epidermal cells. The
ground tissue is parenchymatous with scattered stone cells. Oil cells are abundant, and
the endosperm has spirally thickened parenchyma cells. The peduncle of the fruiting
panicle has unilayered cutinised epidermis with rarely unicellular trichomes. The cortex
is parenchymatous with numerous cells containing tannin intermingled with oil cells.
Pericyclic fibre is discontinuous. The stele is made of collateral bundles in a continuous
ring. Phloem has many oil cells. Vessels are spirally thickened with scalariform or
simple perforation. The pith is parenchymatous with oil cells.
The stem galls have cutinised single-layered epidermis, with a parenchymatous
cortex having many oil cells. Pericycle fibre is discontinuous. The vascular strand is
made of very few vessels and mostly of fibres that contain starch granules. Rays converge
to protoxylem ends where fibres and stone cells are present. The pith is sclerosed.
Parenchyma cells are few and pitted. The stone cells are scattered. The central portion
of the pith is almost dissolved. The gall tissue contains starch grains in the cells.
No information is available on the chemical composition of C. wightii.
Less Known Taxa
High safrole containing taxa
Li-Xi Wen and Bi-Qiang (1997) described a new taxa of Cinnamomum, known in Chinese
as ‘xia –ye-gui’ which is regarded by Chen et al. (1997) as C. burmanni f. heyneanum. Li-Xi
Wen and Bi-Qiang (1997) named it as a new species, C. heyneanum (but this name is not
sustainable as this species epithet has already been used for another species).
This is a wild plant that begins to flower four to six years after being planted. Threeto
four-year old branches and leaves can be collected for oil distillation. Steam distillation
of fresh leaves yields 0.54–0.85% oil. The oil contains 96.38 to 99.7% safrole. As, an
important source of safrole, the exploitation and utilisation of this species are promising.