ကင်ပလင်း

Myanmar Name – Kinbalin

Common Name – Sour Currant Shrub.

Botanical Name – Antidesma acidum Rezt.

Family Name – Phyllanthaceae

Habitat – Tropical plant native to various parts of Southeast Asia, including countries like India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Habit – Medium-sized evergreen tree that can grow up to 15 meters in height, Perennial, dioecious; stems much branched, terete, brownish finely pubescent.

Bark – smooth and brownish-grey, not deeply furrowed or rough like the bark of some other tree species

Leaves – Leaves simple, alternate, stipulate, petiolate; stipules linear; blades ovate-lanceolate, 5-11 by 1.0-2.5 cm, obtuse at the base, entire along the margin, acute at the apex, lower surfaces covered with reddish-brown tomentose on the nerves, upper surfaces glabrous.

Inflorescence – Axillary or terminal panicles, which are clusters of small flowers.

Flower – Flowers light yellow, unisexual, actinomorphic, 4-merous, hypogynous, apetalous, ebracteate, sessile, ebracteolate. Sepals free, shortly 4-lobed. Stamens 2, free, exerted; anthers dithecous, basifixed, longitudinally dehiscent; disk cushion-like, glabrous. Ovary ellipsoid, superior, monocarpellary, unilocular with 2-ovules in the locule on the pendulous placentae; style very short; stigma bifid.

Fruit – Small, ovoid to ellipsoid drupe, which is initially green and turns reddish to black when ripe. The fruit is about 1 to 1.5 centimeters long and contains a single seed.

Seed – A single, relatively large, and somewhat flattened structure within the fruit.

Flowering and Fruiting Time – Flowering time from January to March and fruiting time from May to July.

Usage – reatment of stomachache of children, digestion related issues and diabetes.