udumbara :

Ficus racemosa (Linn) is a moderate sized avenue plant, belongs to family- Moraceae which is usually known as the Cluster Fig Tree, Indian Fig Tree or Goolar (Gular) Fig. This plant is native to Australia, Malaysia, South-East Asia and the Indian Subcontinent . Ficus racemosa grows all over India in several forests and hilly areas. It is frequently available around the water streams and is also cultivated. Found along the river banks and inland forests from plains to 1500 m most frequently in India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Queensland and South China to New Guinea. The plant can be grown by vegetative as well as sexual propagation (using seeds)

In Buddhism, uḍumbara (Pali, Sanskrit) refers to the tree, flower and fruit of the Ficus racemosa (syn. Ficus glomerata). In Buddhist literature, this tree or its fruit may carry the connotation of rarity and parasitism. It is also mentioned in Vedic texts as the source of wood for rituals and amulets.

HISTORICAL AND MYTHOLOGICAL REVIEW:

In Hinduism

In the Atharva Veda, this fig tree (Sanskrit: uḍumbara or udumbara) is given prominence as a means for acquiring prosperity and vanquishing foes.

For instance, regarding an amulet of the udumbara tree, a hymn (AV xix,31) extols:

The Lord of amulets art thou, most mighty: in the wealths

ruler that engendered riches,

These gains are lodged in the, and all great treasures. Amulet,

conquer thou: far from us banish malignity and indigence,

and hunger.

Vigour art thou, in me do thou plant vigour: riches art thou, so

do thou grant me riches.

Plenty art thou, so prosper me with plenty: House-holder, hear

a householders petition.

It has been described in the story of Raja Harischandra of the Ikshvaku dynasty, that the crown was a branch of this udumbura tree, set in a circlet of gold. Additionally, the throne (simhasana) was constructed out of this wood and the royal personage would ascend it on his knee, chanting to the gods to ascend it with him, which they did so, albeit unseen. Its leaves are an indispensable part of many Hindu havans.

In Buddhism

Main article: Udumbara (Buddhism)

Both the tree and the flower are referred to as the udumbara (Sanskrit, Pali; Devanagari: उडुम्बर) in Buddhism.

Udumbara can also refer to the blue lotus (nila-udumbara, "blue udumbara") flower. The udumbara flower appears in chapters 2 and 27 of the Lotus Sutra, an important Mahayana Buddhist text. The Japanese word udon-ge (優曇華, literally "udon/udumbara flower") was used by Dōgen Zenji to refer to the flower of the udumbara tree in chapter 68 of the Shōbōgenzō ("Treasury of the Eye of the True Dharma"). Dōgen places the udonge in the context of the Flower Sermon given by Gautama Buddha on Vulture Peak. Udonge is also used to refer to the eggs of the lacewing insect. The eggs are laid in a pattern similar to a flower, and its shape is used for divination in Asian fortune telling.

In Theravada Buddhism, the plant is said to have used as the tree for achieved enlightenment (bodhi) by the 26th Lord Buddha, Konaagama (Sinhalese: කෝණාගම).

Taxonomical Classification

Kingdom: Plantae - Plants
Subkingdom: Tracheobionta - Vascular plants
Superdivision: Spermatophyta - Seed plants
Division: Magnoliophyta - Flowering plants
Class: Magnoliopsida - Dicotyledons
Family: Moraceae
Genus: Ficus
Species: Ficus racemosa

Allied species:

not known

VERNACULAR NAMES

Sanskrit: udumbar, jantuphala, hemdugdhaka, kshirvriksha, sadaphala, kalaskandha, yagnyayoga, sheetvalka, phalasambadha, yagnyasara, panibhuk
English: cluster fig, country fig Crattock, Gular fig, Redwood fig
Hindi: Gulara, Gular
Urdu: gular
Telugu: atti,medai , Brahmamamidi, medi pandu, Attimaram
Bengali: Jagnadumur, Yagnadumur
Marathi: Atti, Gular, Umber
Konkani: Rhumbud
Oriya: Jajnadimbri, Dimbiri
Gujarathi: Umbro, Umerdo, Umardo, Umarado
Tamil: atti
Malayalam: Athi
Kannada: Attihanninamara, Oudumbara, Athimara, Attigida
Punjabi: Kath Gular, Gular
Arabic: jammaiz
Assamese: Jangedumuru, Yagyadimru
Chinese: Ju Guo Rong.
Nepal: Dumrii
Persian: anjire-ahmaq
Sinhalese: Attikka

Varities:

Ficus species are common and form an important element of lowland rain forest, both as canopy and understorey trees.

Dalhana mentioned 2 varieties

1. udumbara - ficus racemosa or ficus. glomerata

2. Kasthodumbara / kakodumbara - ficus hispida

Raja nighantu mention 3 kinds of udumbara

1. udumbara

2. nayodumbara

3. phalgu - anjeer / ficus carica

Definition

उदुम्बरो जन्तुफलो यज्ञाङ्गो हेमदुग्धकः |

उदुम्बरो हिमो रूक्षो गुरुः पित्तकफास्रजित् |

मधुरस्तुवरो वर्ण्यो व्रणशोधनरोपणः ||८||

Synonyms

Synonyms in Ayurveda: udumbar, jantuphala, hemdugdhaka, kshirvriksha, sadaphala, kalaskandha, yagnyayoga, sheetvalka, phalasambadha, yagnyasara, panibhuk

उदुम्बरो जन्तुफलो यज्ञाङ्गो हेमदुग्धकः |
Rasa: Kashaya
Guna: Guru Ruksha
Veerya: Sheetha
Vipaka: Katu
Karma: Pittahara

The bark of audumbar (oudumbar) tree is said to have healing power. In countries like India, the bark is rubbed on a stone with water to make a paste, which can be applied over afflicted by boils or mosquito bites. Allow the paste to dry on the skin and reapply after a few hours. For people whose skin is especially sensitive to insect bites, this is a very simple home remedy

Cultivation:

Ficus species are common and form an important element of lowland rain forest, both as canopy and understorey trees. Most species prefer per-humid forest, but several are found in areas with a monsoon climate and in teak forest, including locations where the soil dries out.
Succeeds in full sun to partial shade Succeeds in most soils that are reasonably moist but well-drained
Cluster fig is resistant to fire

Fig trees have a unique form of fertilization, each species relying on a single, highly specialized species of wasp that is itself totaly dependant upon that fig species in order to breed. The trees produce three types of flower; male, a long-styled female and a short-styled female flower, often called the gall flower. All three types of flower are contained within the structure we usually think of as the fruit.

The female fig wasp enters a fig and lays its eggs on the short styled female flowers while pollinating the long styled female flowers. Wingless male fig wasps emerge first, inseminate the emerging females and then bore exit tunnels out of the fig for the winged females. Females emerge, collect pollen from the male flowers and fly off in search of figs whose female flowers are receptive. In order to support a population of its pollinator, individuals of a Ficus spp. Must flower asynchronously. A population must exceed a critical minimum size to ensure that at any time of the year at least some plants have overlap of emmission and reception of fig wasps. Without this temporal overlap the short-lived pollinator wasps will go locally extinct

Propogation:

Seed - germinates best at a temperature around 20°c.
Air layering
Tip cuttings around 4 - 12cm long, taken from lateral branches

Harvesting:

The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine. It is often cultivated, both for its fruit and also as a shade tree in plantations and an ornamental tree in parks, large gardens etc

Phytochemistry:

Leaf - Sterols, tannins and flavonoids, triterpenoids (Lanosterol) and alkaloids. A new tetracyclic triterpene glauanol acetate which is characterized as 13α, 14β, 17βH, 20αH-lanosta-8, 22-diene-3β-acetate and racemosic acid were isolated from the leaves

Stem-Bark - Tannin, wax, saponin gluanol acetate, β-sitosterol, leucocyanidin- 3 – O – β – D - glucopyrancoside, leucopelargonidin – 3 – O – β – D - glucopyranoside, leucopelargonidin – 3 – O – α – L - rhamnopyranoside, lupeol, ceryl behenate, lupeol acetate, α-amyrin acetate, leucoanthocyanidin, and leucoanthocyanin from trunk bark, lauanol acetate, lupeol, β-sitosterol and stigmasterol were isolated from stem bark

Trunk-Bark - Upenol, β-sistosterol and stigmasterol

Fruit - Glauanol, glauanol acetate, hentriacontane, β sitosterol, glauanolacetate, glucose, tiglic acid, esters of taraxasterol, lupeolacetate, friedelin, higherhydrocarbons and other phytosterol

Root - Cycloartenol, euphorbol and its hexacosanoate, taraxerone, tinyatoxin; bark euphorbol and its hexacosanate, ingenol and its triacetate, taraxerone [

Latex - a-amyrin, β-sitosterol, cycloartenol, cycloeuphordenol, 4-deoxyphorbol and its esters, euphol, euphorbinol, isoeuphorbol, palmitic acid, taraxerol, tinyatoxin, tirucallol, trimethyl ellagic acid

PHARMACOLOGY:

IMPORTANT FORMULATIONS

1. Nyagrodhadi Kvatha

2. Nyagrodhadi Curna,

3.Mutrasangrahaniya Kashaya

4. Mutrasangrahaniya Curna

Parts used for medicinal purpose

Bark, Fruit, ,

Dosage:

powder - 3-6 g

decoction - 50 - 100 ml in divided doses per day

latex - 5- 100 drops

Purification:

not needed

Controversy:

It is common practice for clinicians to prescribe drugs such oral hypoglycemic agents and or insulin to achieve glycemic control. Many patients are using alternative therapies including dietary supplements or complementary and alternative medicine treatment. However, the safety and efficacy of alternative therapies in general and of medicinal plants in particular must be evaluated by rigorous clinical investigations to confirm and advocate the excellence over the conventional therapies. Medicinal herbs with antihyperglycemic activities are increasingly sought by diabetic subjects and health care professionals and the market for herbal medicines is expanding globally, it is being simultaneously counterbalanced by inadequate regulation

Antidiabetic potential of various parts of F. racemosa has been studied in diabetic rats/rabbits. The antidiabetic potential of the stem bark is reported by several workers. Aqueous and ethanol extracts of the stem bark have exhibited long term antihyperglycemic effect in alloxaninduced diabetic rats. Similarly, methanol extracts of the stem bark has shown significant hypoglycemic effect in both normal and alloxan-induced diabetic rats, comparable to that of glibenclamide, a standard antidiabetic drug . In addition to reducing blood glucose, ethanol extracts were effective in lowering serum lipids and lipoproteins to near normal levels . Feeding of ethanol root extract caused a significant decrease in blood glucose in alloxan induced diabetic rats . A study on diabetic rabbits reports significant hypoglycemic effect of a compound recipe of medicinal plants containing F. racemosa

Commercial value:

The bark of audumbar (oudumbar) tree is said to have healing power. In countries like India, the bark is rubbed on a stone with water to make a paste, which can be applied over afflicted by boils or mosquito bites. Allow the paste to dry on the skin and reapply after a few hours. For people whose skin is especially sensitive to insect bites, this is a very simple home remedy

Morphology:

Goolar is an attractive fig tree with a crooked trumk and a spreading crown.

Unlike the banyan, it has no aerial roots. The most distinctive aspect of this tree is the red, furry figs in short clusters, which grow directly out of the trunk of the tree. Those looking for the flower of goolar should know that the fig is actually a compartment carrying hundreds of flowers

Leaves: The leaves are dark green, 6-10 cm long, glabrous; receptacles small subglobose or piriform,

in large clusters from old nodes of main trunk

Fruits: The fruits receptacles are 3-6 cm in diameter, pyriform, in large clusters,

arising from main trunk or large branches.

The fruits resemble the figs and are green when raw, turning orange, dull reddish or dark crimson on ripening.

The fruit of Ficus Racemosa Linn is 3/4inch to 2 inches long, circular and grows directly on the trunk

Seeds: The seeds are tiny, innumerable and grain-like.

Outer surface of the bark consists of easily removable translucent flakes grayish to rusty brown,

uniformly hard and non-brittle

Bark: Bark is reddish grey or grayish green, soft surface, uneven and often cracked, 0.5-1.8 cm thick,

on rubbing white papery flakes come out from the outer surface, inner surface light brown, fracture fibrous,

taste mucilaginous without any characteristic odour. Unlike the banyan, it has no aerial roots.

Those looking for the flower of goolar should know that the fig is actually a compartment carrying hundreds of flowers.

Texture is homogeneously leathery

Roots: The roots of F.racemosa are long, brownish in colour.

It’s having characteristic odour and slightly bitter in taste

Roots are irregular in shape

Histology:

Transverse section of bark shows cork, 3-6 layers of thin-walled cells filled with brownish content, cork cambium single layered,
secondary cortex 6-12 layered, composed of thin-walled rectangular cells arranged regularly,
a number of secondary cortex cells contain starch grains and some contain rhomboidal crystals of calcium oxalate,
most of the cells filled with chloroplast giving green appearance, cortex a fairly wide zone composed of circular to oblong, thin-walled cells, containing orange-brown content, most of the cells filled with simple and compound starch grains, a number of cells also contain cubical and rhomboidal crystals of calcium oxalate,
some cortical cells get lignified with pitted walls found scattered singly or in large groups throughout cortical region,
secondary phloem a very wide zone composed of parenchyma with patches of sieve tubes, companion cells by medullary rays, phloem parenchyma circular to oval and thin-walled, phloem fibres much elongated, lignified, very heavily thickened and possess a very narrow lumen: medullary rays uni to pentaseriate widen towards peripheral region , a number of ray cells also get lignified and show pitted wall as described above,
laticiferous cells also found in phloem region similar to parenchyma but filled with small granular masses, starch grains and rhomboidal crystals of calcium oxalate also found in most of phloem parenchyma and ray cells, cambium, when present,
2-3 layered, of tangentially elongated thin-walled cells.

Geographical distribution:

E. Asia - Southern China, Indian subcontinent, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Australia.

ECOLOGICAL ASPECT:

Ficus racemosa trees are one of the most common trees that grow along the river bank which is criss-crossed by numerous elephant trails.

Elephants love the figs but find the leaves distasteful.

Plant conservation:

The tree is cultivated to provide shade for coffee trees

It is used for slope, gully and river bank stabilization because it produces a deep and wide-spreading root system

The leaves provide a valuable mulch

General Use:

Anti-bacterial - show effect on Bacillus subtilis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus pumitis.
Anti-fungal - It has antifungal activity also.
It is hepato-protective also.

Therapeutic Uses:

Daha
Medoroga
Raktapitta
Yonidosa

Systemic Use:

Fruits

Used in leprosy, diarrhoea, circulatory and respiratory disorders and menorrhagia

Tender fruits are used as astringent, stomachic, refrigerant, in dry cough, loss of voice, diseases of kidney and spleen, astringent to bowel, styptic, tonic, useful in the treatment of leucorrhoea, blood disorder, burning sensation, fatigue, urinary discharges, leprosy, epitasis, carminative and intestinal worms. They are also useful in miscarriage, spermatorrhoea, epididymitis, cancer, myalgia, scabies, haemoptysis, intrinsic haemorrhage and extreme thirst [, 18].

Latex

It is administered in haemorrhoids, boils, alleviates the edema in adenitis, parotitis, orchitis, traumatic swelling, toothache, vaginal disorders, diarrhoea particular in childrens and also aphrodisiac. Latex is applied externally on chronic infected wounds to alleviate edema, pain and to promote the healing. The latex is reportedly used for treating piles.

Root Sap

It is used for treating diabetes. The sap of this plant is a popular remedy for mumps and other inflammatory enlargements. In Sri Lankan indigenous system of medicine, it is used in the treatment of skeletal fracture. The Australian aborigines use this plant in the treatment of mumps, smallpox, heamaturia, menorrhagia and inflammatory conditions. In Siddha the bark, fruits and latex are used to treat constipation, anaemia and dysentery

Roots are used in dysentery, pectoral complaints, and diabetes, applied in mumps, other inflammatory glandular enlargements and hydrophobia

Bark

It is highly effective in threatened abortion and also recommended to treat Menorrhagia, leucorrhoea, gonorrhoea, urinary diseases, hemorrhage and skin diseases

The bark is highly recommended in urological disorders, diabetes, hiccough, leprosy, dysentery and piles

Leaves

The leaves are excellent wash for wounds and ulcers. They are useful in dysentery and diarrhea.

The infusion of bark and leaves is also employed as mouth wash to spongy gums and internally in dysentery, menorrhagia, efficient remedy in glandular swelling, abscess, chronic wounds, cervical adenitis and haemoptysis

Administration:

latex used in treating leucorrhea

bark used to make decoction / kashaya

Pharmacological:

Increases kapha but decreases pitta dosha

trishnahara

pittasrahara

ruchya

shophahara

sramahara

Clinical trials:

Role of Udumbara Sutra in the Management of Fistula in Ano a Rare Case Study (Bhagandara)
A clinical study on the efficacy of Panchavalkala cream in Vrana Shodhana w.s.r to its action on microbial load and wound infection

Research:

Understanding role of three ficus species in the management of skin diseases with respect to pittaj kushtha
Overview of Academic Researches on Vranaropan (Tissue Healing) Properties of Ayurvedic Drugs
International Journal of Applied Ayurved Research ISSN: 2347- 6362 effect of ficus glomerata (udumbara) on various diseases occurring in persons born in kruttika nakshatra

Precautions:

As it is quite a coolant tree, precaution should be taken in using kapha dominant person with recurrent allergic rhinitis, cough and cold

Ripe fruit of country fig is usually avoided in culinary uses as it may cause or worsen intestinal worm manifestation

Toxicity studies:

Fresh or dried fig fruit is LIKELY SAFE for most people when used in food amounts.

Fig LEAF is POSSIBLY SAFE for most people when taken by mouth for up to one month as a medicine. However, in high doses, fig LATEX, the sap from the tree, might cause bleeding in the digestive tract in some people.

Applying fig leaf to the skin is POSSIBLY UNSAFE. It can cause skin to become extra sensitive to the sun. Avoid prolonged sun exposure when applying fig LEAF to the skin. Wear sunblock outside, especially if you are light-skinned. Fig FRUIT is unlikely to cause sun sensitivity.

Skin contact with fig fruit or leaves can cause rash in sensitive people.

Use in other system of medicine:

All parts of this plant (leaves, fruits, bark, latex, and sap of the root) are medicinally important in the traditional system of medicine in India

In countries like India, the bark is rubbed on a stone with water to make a paste, which can be applied over afflicted by boils or mosquito bites. Allow the paste to dry on the skin and reapply after a few hours. For people whose skin is especially sensitive to insect bites, this is a very simple home remedy.

Siddha Medicinal Uses :

It is one of the constituent of Naalpamaram used to treat various skin ailments.

The decoction of the bark helps to treat bloody diarrhoea, chronic ulcers, leucorrhoea, dysentry etc.

The fruit of this tree is laxative and relieves constipation.

The leaf decoction has Anti-bacterial and wound healing properties.

CONCLUSION:

F. racemosa is the well-known fig plant in the Indian Traditional System of Medicine, with multiple pharmacological actions. The extracts and phytoconstituents isolated from this plant have been shown to produce different pharmacological responses, which include hypoglycemic, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, hypolipidemic, antidiuretic, and renal anticarcinogenic activities. The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and medicine. It is often cultivated, both for its fruit and also as a shade tree in plantations and an ornamental tree in parks, large gardens etc

KEY WORDS: Ficus racemosa, pharmacology, phytochemistry, toxicology, traditional uses, udumbara