Alstonia angustiloba (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Alstonia angustiloba Miq.

Protologue: Fl. Ind. Bat. 2: 438 (1856).

Synonyms

• Alstonia calophylla Miq. (1856),
• Alstonia iwahigensis Elmer (1912),
• Paladelpha angustiloba (Miq.) Pichon (1947).

Vernacular names

• Brunei: pulai lilin (Malay), pelai beruang
• Indonesia: pulai hitam
• Malaysia: pulai (Peninsular), pulai bukit (Sarawak)
• Philippines: silhigan (Tagbanua)
• Thailand: tin pet lek (Songkhla)

Distribution

Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Java and Borneo (Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei) and the Philippines.

Uses

The wood is used as pulai. It is suitable for pencil manufacture, matches, tea chests, crates, plywood and carpentry.

In Peninsular Malaysia, the leaves are externally applied to the spleen area to treat remittent fever. In Sarawak, the latex is used to heal boils and abscesses. An extract of the pounded bark is an ingredient of febrifuges and vermifuges. In Thailand, the latex is used to soothe toothache. The latex is used with copper sulphate to treat yaws, a skin disease.

Observations

• A medium-sized to large tree up to 45 m tall, bole tall, straight, fluted, up to 100 cm in diameter, buttresses straight, up to 8 m tall and spreading out at the base for about 1.5 m, outer bark brown or grey to whitish, rough, fissured and peeling off in rectangular flakes, inner bark mottled, yellow-brown, with copious latex.
• Leaves in whorls of 4-7(-9), elliptical to obovate, 4.5-22 cm √ó 2-7 cm, subacuminate or obtuse, with 30-60(-70) pairs of secondary veins, petiole 10-20(-30) mm long, stout.
• Inflorescence usually forming 2 umbels above each other, many-flowered, pedicel 1-3 mm long, calyx hirtellous, corolla glabrous outside.
• Follicles brownish tomentose.

A. angustiloba occurs on a wide variety of soils and is common in mixed dipterocarp forest on low hills and undulating land, and in freshwater swamp forest, up to 700 m altitude. It becomes abundant in secondary forest and is apparently a fast-growing light demander. The density of the wood is 240-490 kg/m³ at 15% moisture content. See also the table on wood properties.

Selected sources

• [33]Ashton, P.S., 1988. Manual of the non-dipterocarp trees of Sarawak. 2 volumes. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Sarawak branch, for Forest Department, Sarawak. 490 pp.
• [35]Backer, C.A. & Bakhuizen van den Brink, R.C., 1963–1968. Flora of Java. 3 volumes. Noordhoff, Groningen.
• [100]Burgess, P.F., 1966. Timbers of Sabah. Sabah Forest Records No 6. Forest Department, Sabah, Sandakan. xviii + 501 pp.
• [146]Cockburn, P.F., 1976–1980. Trees of Sabah. 2 volumes. Sabah Forest Records No 10. Forest Department Sabah, Kuching.
• [307]Hallé, F., Oldeman, R.A.A. & Tomlinson, P.B., 1978. Tropical trees and forests. An architectural analysis. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York. 441 pp.
• [370]Kochummen, K.M. & Wong, K.M., 1984. A new Alstonia (Apocynaceae) from the Malay Peninsula and some comments on the genus. Blumea 29: 513–522.
• [373]Koorders, S.H. & Valeton, T., 1913–1918. Atlas der Baumarten von Java *[Atlas of tree species of Java]. 4 volumes. Fa. P.W.M. Trap, Leiden.
• [452]Mansor, H. & Morris, M.D., 1989. Preliminary analysis of yield and composition of latex from Alstonia angustiloba. Journal of Tropical Forest Science 2: 142–149.
• [455]Markgraf, F., 1974. Florae Malesianae praecursores LIV. Apocynaceae part III. 9. Alstonia. Blumea 22: 20–29.
• [461]Martawijaya, A. et al., 1986. Indonesian wood atlas. Vol. 1. Forestry Products and Development Centre, Bogor. 166 pp.
• [475]Meijer, W., 1974. Field guide for trees of West Malesia. Missouri Botanical Garden, Saint Louis. 328 pp.
• [672] Middleton, D.J., 1999. Apocynaceae. In: Santisuk, T. & Larsen, K. (Editors). Flora of Thailand. Vol. 7(1). The Forest Herbarium, Royal Forest Department, Bangkok, Thailand. pp. 1—153.
• [496]Monachino, J., 1949. A revision of the genus Alstonia (Apocynaceae). Pacific Science 3: 133–182.
• [786] Perry, L.M., 1980. Medicinal plants of East and Southeast Asia. Attributed properties and uses. MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States & London, United Kingdom. 620 pp.
• [560]Prawira, S.A. & Oetja, 1975. Pengenalan jenis-jenis pohon ekspor *[Introduction to export timber tree species], serie KE: VII. Laporan No 214. Lembaga Penelitian Hutan, Bogor. 27 pp.
• [619]Sim, H.C., 1982. Malaysian timbers – pulai. Malaysian Forest Service Trade Leaflet No 64. Malaysian Timber Industry Board, Kuala Lumpur. 7 pp.
• [950] Soerianegara, I. & Lemmens, R.H.M.J. (Editors), 1993. Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 5(1). Timber trees: Major commercial timbers. Pudoc Scientific Publishers, Wageningen, the Netherlands. 610 pp.
• [704]Tomlinson, P.B. & Zimmerman, M.H. (Editors), 1978. Tropical trees as living systems. The proceedings of the Fourth Cabot Symposium held at Harvard Forest, Petersham, Massachusetts on April 26–30, 1976. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, London, New York, Melbourne. 675 pp.,
• [762]Wardi & Soewarsono, P.H., 1963. Preliminary study on the physical and mechanical properties of Indonesian woods. Laporan No 5. Lembaga Penelitian Hasil Hutan, Bogor.
• [779]Whitmore, T.C. & Ng, F.S.P. (Editors), 1972–1989. Tree flora of Malaya. A manual for foresters. 4 Volumes. 2nd ed. Malayan Forest Records No 26. Longman Malaysia SDN Berhad, Kuala Lumpur.
• [1120] Zeches, M., Ravao, T., Richard, B., Massiot, G., Le Men-Olivier, L. & Verpoorte, L., 1987. Some new vallesamine-type alkaloids. Journal of Natural Products (Lloydia) 50(4): 714—720.

Main genus page

• Alstonia (Medicinal plants)
• Alstonia (Timbers)

Authors

• Rudjiman (selection of species)
• Stephen P. Teo