Flame Tree

Overview

Flame tree has become almost extinct in its native range of Madagascar. The main native subpopulations are found in areas that are threatened from charcoal production. It is a very popular and most beautiful ornamental tree that has been very widely introduced to tropical countries. Recently, it has become invasive inAustralia, and on Christmas Island and a number of Pacific islands. 

Vernacular Names

Hang nok yung farang (Thailand), Feng huang hua (Chinese),Flamboyan (French, Spanish), Goldmore (Arabic), Cennet a (Turkish), Seinban (B
urmese). 

Agroecology

A plant of low to medium elevations in the moist tropics. The mean annual temperature ranges from 14-26 °C, and the mean annual rainfall isover 700 mm. It prefers sandy soils, pH in the range 5.5-6.5. It is very drought tolerant.

Morphology

• Bark - grey or brown, smooth or slightly rough,and exfoliating.
• Leaves - bipinnate, slightly hairy, about 30 cmlong. Leaflets are oblong, in 18 to 30 pairs,about 1.5 cm long.
• Flowers - appear in corymbs along or at the end of branches and are large, 10 cm across and bright red, vary considerably in intensity of colouring, ranging from orange-vermillion to deep scarlet.
• Fruits - green and flaccid when young, turning to dark, pendulous pods, elongate, woody, compressed, and up to 50 cm long.
• Seeds - large, yellowish, oblong, arranged atright angles to the length of pod and transversely mottled. The seeds have a hard,bony testa. 

Cultivation

• Generative propagation is by seed.
• The seed is able to germinate at a wide range of soil pH values (4.9-10.6), but take a long time to germinate and may lie dormant in the soil for 2-3 years or more. 

Chemical Constituents

ß-sitosterol, saponins, alkaloids, carotene, hydrocarbons phytotoxins, flavonoid glycosides, tannins, steroids, lupeol, p-methoxybenzaldehyde, gallic acid, amino acid.

Traditional Medicinal Uses

• An ethanol extraction of the leaves has been shown to exert a cardio-protective effect, at least partly due to its vasodilatory andantiinflammatory activity.
• D. regia extract showed potent anticancer effect.
• A leaf decoction presumably has anti-rheumatic effects.
• In Eastern Nigeria, the leaves are used traditionally for treating pain.
• In Bangladesh folk medicine, leaves used for the treatment of diabetes.
• In Madhya Pradesh, India, seeds used for pyorrhea; roasted and crushed leaves wrapped in cloth inhaled just aster a scorpion bite; infusion offlowers used for bronchitis, asthma and malarial fever. Leaves used forrheumatism and as purgative. Bark used for fever and ethanol extract of flowers used for treatment of round worms. In Andhra Pradesh, flowersused for the treatment of dysmenorrhea.