Did you know that the Devil tree known by the scientifc name Alstonia scholaris, native to India, is a species with suffix 'scholaris' as its timber is used to make traditional slate for school children?
Devil tree, known by the scientifc name Alstonia scholaris, commonly called blackboard tree, Scholar tree, Milkwood in English, is an elegant evergreen tropical tree, found in most moist deciduous forests of India and China. It is also widely cultivated as an avenue tree throughout India one such avenue created in the 1940s is the Golf-Link avenue in Delhi.
The timber of this tree has traditionally been used to make wooden slates for school children and blackboards are pigmented, and hence its scientific name has the suffix 'scholaris'.
The bark contains the alkaloids ditamine, echitenine,[citation needed] echitamine[9] and strictamine. Echitamine is the most important alkaloid found in the bark.
Alstonia scholaris also known as the 'dita tree', belongs to the Dogbane Family (Apocynaceae) and is native to India, tropical Asia, Southern China, and Australasia. In India, it is known by by many vernacular languages such as: Aelele Haale in Kannada; Saptaparni, Chhatwan in Hindi; Daivappala in Malayalam; Ezilai pillai in Tamil; Daevasurippi in Telugu; and Saptaparna in Sanskrit. In Unani medicine, it is called Kashim.
The plant grows reasonably well in moist lowland tropical and subtropical areas such as Coastal mesophyll vine forest, Palm-dominated forests, and Notophyll vine forests. in India, and is widely cultivated as avenue tree throughout India. It is s a medium-sized evergreen glabrous tree growing upto 40 m height. with close-set canopy. Bark is rough, greyish white, yellowish inside, and exudes bitter latex when injured. Leaves are four to seven in a whorl, and are thick, oblong, with a blunt tip. They are dark green on the top, and pale and covered with brownish pubescence on the dorsal surface.The bark is almost odorless and very bitter, with abundant bitter and milky sap. Flowers are fragrant, greenish-white or greyish-yellow in umbrella-shaped cymes. In New Guinea, the trunk is uniquely three-sided (i.e. it is triangular in cross-section).
The wood of Alstonia scholaris has been recommended for the manufacture of pencils, as it is suitable in nature and the tree grows rapidly and is easy to cultivate.
Its name as 'Scholar tree' is due to the fact that the leaves of Alstonia scholaris (Saptaparni) are awarded in convocations to graduates and postgraduates of Visva-Bharati University (established by Rabindranath Tagore) by the chancellor, given to him in turn by the Prime Minister of India.
Its use (stem bark, leaves, latex, and flowers) in folk and traditional medicine is reported in many parts of the world, to cure fevers, chronic diarrhea, dysentery, ulcers, rheumatic pains, cancer, Beriberi, and Malaria. Its bark is commercially sold as herbal medicine as it contains the alkaloids ditamine, echitenine,[citation needed] echitamine and strictamine. It is described in the Pharmacopoeia of India as an astringent tonic, anthelmintic, and antiperiodic. Its seeds are rich in hallucinogenic compounds and thus used by Indian tribes as aphrodisiac in sex rituals.
Narasipur Char
