Morinda tinctoria Roxb | |
Rubiaceae | |
Nuna | |
| Botanical Name | Morinda tinctoria Roxb |
| Synonyms | Morinda multiflora. Roxb.; Morinda ligulata .Blanco. |
| Family | Rubiaceae |
| Common Name | English: Indian mulberry / Tamil: Nona, Manjalathi |
| Distribution | Global : Indo-Malasia to Australia. Indian : Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. |
| Description | Evergreen small crooked trees up to 3-8 m high, bark greyish or yellowish- brown, shallowly fissured; branchlets quandrangular. Leaves simple, opposite, elliptic-lanceolate, entire, acute to shortly acuminate, cuneate at base, pinnately nerved, glabrous, stipules variable in size and shape, broadly triangular. Inflorescence cyme in globose head. Flowers bisexual, fragrant, in dense globose heads, connate by the calyces. Calyx tube hemispheric, limb truncate. Corolla funnel-shaped, lobes 5 lanceolate, acute. Stamens 5, inserted on the mouth of the corolla, filaments hairy. Ovary 2-celled, ovule solitary, stigma bilobed. Fruit an ovoid syncarp of pyramidal, 2-seeded drupes, yellow-white; seeds black, with hard albumen and distinct air chamber. |
| Flowering Fruiting period | July-November |
| Uses | Red dye is obtained from the root bark and used as antioxidant. |
| Medicinal Uses | Antiseptic, diuretic the roots, leaves and fruits may have anthelmintic properties, Anti-cancer. |
| Tamil Name | Nuna |