သစ်ဆိမ့်

Myanmar Name – Thit – Seint

Common Name – Myrobalan, Beleric

Botanical Name – Terminalia bellirica (Gaertn) Roxb.

Family Name – Combretaceae

Habitat – tropical Asia, from India to the Moluccas (Indonesia).

Habit – Deciduous trees, to 35 m high, bole often buttressed

Bark – Bark 10-20 mm thick, surface blackish-grey, smooth, vertically shallowly fissured, exfoliations small, semi-fibrous; blaze yellow; branches sympodial; branchlets terete, thinly fulvous-hairy, leaf scars prominent.

Leaves – Leaves simple, opposite or alternate, clustered at the tip of branchlets, estipulate; petiole 15-80 mm, stout, slightly grooved above, glabrous; lamina 9-35 x 5-16 cm, obovate, elliptic or obovate-elliptic.

Inflorescence – Inflorescence axillary spikes .

Flower – Flowers bisexual, greenish-yellow, 5-6 mm across, in axillary spikes; peduncle puberulous; bracteoles 0.5-2 mm long, linear-lanceolate, caducous; calyx tube 2-2.5 ×1.3-2 mm, rusty pubescent, constricted above the ovary; lobes 5, cream, triangular, tomentose; disc 5-lobed, villous; petals absent; ovary 1.5 mm, inferior, tomentose, 1-celled; ovules 2 or 3, pendulous; style 4 mm, subulate; stigma small.

Fruit – Fruit a drupe 2-2.5 x 1.8 cm, obovoid, obscurely 5-ridged, yellowish-brown.

Seed – Seed one, ellipsoid.

Flowering and Fruiting Time – Flowering from April – May, Fruiting from November- February

Usage – Fruits are useful in the treatment of asthma, bronchitis, hepatitis, diarrhea, piles, dyspepsia, eye diseases, hoarseness of voice, and scorpion-sting and also used as hair tonic.