Cinnamomum tamala
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Species name: Cinnamomum tamala
Cinnamomum tamala or Indian Bark is a commonly used plant known by the name Tejpatta in India. It is native to India. The leaves of the species are used as a popular spice in several Indian dishes, particularly in Northern India. The leaves have a cinnamon-like aroma (as the species name would suggest). The bark of this tree is also used as a spice. The leaves are also used in the perfume industry for their fragrance.
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Angiosperm phylogeny. This image is copyrighted. Rights owned by Theodore C.H.Cole (Heidelberg) and Hartmut H. Hilger (Berlin) 2010. Please obtain copyright permissions before reuse.
Click here for the PDF of the phylogeny
- Species identity and nomenclature
- Current Wikipedia entry
- Binomial Classification
- Morphological features
- Habitat and Geographical Spread
- Maps
- Medicinal Importance
- Cultural significance
- Commercial importance and cultivation
- Summary of PubMed articles
- Summary of NCBI molecular data
- External Links
- Images and Videos
| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Names of users who have contributed to this species page | Gauravm | |
| Date on which this page was first created | 2010/10/19 | |
| This page was last modified on: | 20 October 2010 03:47:22 | |
| Name of the species | Cinnamomum tamala | |
| ID on Encyclopedia of Life | ||
| Synonyms | Please check Binomial Classification section for synonyms. | |
| Common English Names | Indian Bay Leaf, Indian cassia, Indian cassia bark, Tamala cassia, Malabar Leaf | |
| Common Hindi Names | तेजपत्ता tejpatta | |
| Common Indian names | तेजपत्ता tejpatta (Hindi);তেজপাত Tejpat (Manipuri);தாளிசபத்திரி Talishappattiri (Tamil);തമാലപത്രമ് Tamalapatram (Malayalam);Talisapatri, Talisha, Patta akulu (Telugu);Patraka (Kannada);তেজপাত Tejpat (Bengali);तेज़पात Tezpat (Urdu);Mahpat, তেজপাত Tejpat (Assamese);તમાલપત્ર Tamaal patra (Gujarati);तमालपत्र tamalapattra (Sanskrit) | Flowers of India |
| Origins/Meanings of the common names | The Hindi name Tejpatta means "Intense leaf". The name tries to highlight the intense flavoring conferred by the leaf, which is added to Indian dishes as a spice. The Linnean species name tamala comes from the Indian word for the leaf तमाल पत्र Tamaal patra. | Gauravm |
Taxonomy from Encyclopedia of Life
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Taxonomy filled in form
Click here for the PDF of the phylogeny
| Taxon | Value |
|---|---|
| Regnum (Kingdom) | Plantae |
| Division | Magnoliophyta |
| Class | Magnoliopsida |
| Order | Laurales |
| Family | Lauraceae |
| Genus | Cinnamomum |
| Source of data | Encyclopedia of Life |
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| Division | Taxon details | Taxon morphology details |
|---|---|---|
| Magnoliophyta | Also called Angiospermae. The ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms around 245–202 million years ago, and the first flowering plants known to exist are from 140 million years ago. They diversified enormously during the Lower Cretaceous and became widespread around 100 million years ago, but replaced conifers as the dominant trees only around 60-100 million years ago. | These are seed plants like Gymnosperms, but can be differentiated by the presence of flowers, seeds containing endosperm and seeds that produce a fruit. Angiosperms are the most diverse and highly evolutionarily successful group of land plants. |
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| Class | Taxon details | Taxon morphology details |
|---|---|---|
| Magnoliopsida | Magnoliopsida is the scientific name for dicots. This class contains about ~1,99,350 species of Angiosperms. Eudicots are a subset of Dicots. Based on chloroplast DNA sequences, the divergence date between monocots and dicots is estimated to be ~200 million years, with a 40 million years uncertainty. | Dicots are diverse in habit, with half of all the species being more or less woody-stemmed - a reflection of the usual presence of a vascular cambium in the class. Annuals, biennials, vines, epiphytes, aquatics, parasites, and saprotrophs are also well represented in dicots. Vascular bundles of the stem are usually borne in a ring that encloses the pith. Vessel elements present except in some putatively primitive woody or aquatic families. Most dicots have a primary root system derived from the radicle, although some have an adventitious root system commonly seen in the class of monocots. Cotyledons are usually 2, seldom 1, 3, or 4. Leaves are mostly net-veined. |
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Based on classification
More details can be found in the Binomial Classification section.
Morphology from Encyclopedia of Life
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General morphology
| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| General morphological features of the plant | Trees, medium sized, up to 10 m tall; branchlets slender. Terminal bud small, sericeous, 2 bud scales. Leaves sub-opposite or spirally arranged, chartaceous to sub-coriaceous, glabrous in mature specimens, ovate, oblong to lanceolate, 2.5-8 x 7.5-25 cm, apex long acuminate, base acute; above smooth, the main nerves prominulous, below obscurely, densely minutely reticulate, midrib slender, prominent, basal nerves prominent, 4/5 or more of the lamina length, connected by faint, parallel secondary veins, 3-5 mm apart. Petiole slender, up to 1.5 cm long. Panicles axillary or pseudoterminal, slender, many-flowered, up to 10 cm long. Pedicels filiform, 4-8 mm long. Flower tuber short. Tepals oblong, 3-4 mm, inside sericeous. Stamens slightly shorter than the tepals; anthers oval, c. the filament length, 4-celled, of whorls 1 and 2 introrse, of whorl 3, the basal cells extrorse, the smaller upper ones latrorse; gland small, attached to the middle of the filaments. Staminodes as long as the stamens, hastate, long-stipitate. Style thickish, as long as the ovary; stigma small, peltate. Fruit slender, ellipsoid, acutish, up to 7 x 11 mm; cup obconical, fleshy, up to 5 mm high and 7 mm in diameter at the rim, the basal part obconical, merging into the, up to 8 mm long, obconical pedicel; 1-2 mm long basal part of the tepals in fruit hardened, persistent."Trees, medium sized, up to 10 m tall; branchlets slender. Terminal bud small, sericeous, 2 bud scales. Leaves sub-opposite or spirally arranged, chartaceous to sub-coriaceous, glabrous in mature specimens, ovate, oblong to lanceolate, 2.5-8 x 7.5-25 cm, apex long acuminate, base acute; above smooth, the main nerves prominulous, below obscurely, densely minutely reticulate, midrib slender, prominent, basal nerves prominent, 4/5 or more of the lamina length, connected by faint, parallel secondary veins, 3-5 mm apart. Petiole slender, up to 1.5 cm long. Panicles axillary or pseudoterminal, slender, many-flowered, up to 10 cm long. Pedicels filiform, 4-8 mm long. Flower tuber short. Tepals oblong, 3-4 mm, inside sericeous. Stamens slightly shorter than the tepals; anthers oval, c. the filament length, 4-celled, of whorls 1 and 2 introrse, of whorl 3, the basal cells extrorse, the smaller upper ones latrorse; gland small, attached to the middle of the filaments. Staminodes as long as the stamens, hastate, long-stipitate. Style thickish, as long as the ovary; stigma small, peltate. Fruit slender, ellipsoid, acutish, up to 7 x 11 mm; cup obconical, fleshy, up to 5 mm high and 7 mm in diameter at the rim, the basal part obconical, merging into the, up to 8 mm long, obconical pedicel; 1-2 mm long basal part of the tepals in fruit hardened, persistent." cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. | EoL through eFloras |
| Seed dispersal mechanism | ||
|---|---|---|
| Bloom type | Perennial | |
| Life cycle of the plant |
How to identify this species
For a detailed description, refer to the General Morphology details above
| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Type of plant | Woody (Tree/Shrub) | |
| Plant height | More than 10 feet | |
| Flower color | Yellow, Green | |
| Flower shape | ||
| Floral symmetry | ||
| Phyllotaxy of leaves | Opposite | |
| Leaf shape | Oblanceolate | |
| Is the leaf petiolated or sessile? | Petiolated | |
| Is the leaf simple or compound? | Simple |
| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| IUCN Conservation Status | ||
| Indian States in which the species has been documented | ||
| Locations at which the species has been documented | ||
| Biotic zones inhabited | Northeastern Himalayas, Northwestern Himalayas, Indo-Gangetic Plain | |
| Details about the habitat | ||
| Is this species native to India? | Yes | Joshi09 |
| Is the species indigenous/endemic to Sub-Himalayan regions? | Yes | Joshi09 |
| Is the species indigenous/endemic to Western Ghats? | ||
| Is the species indigenous/endemic to Eastern Ghats? |
More plants native to India
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| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Does this species have any medicinal use? | Yes |
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Other plants of the same family having medicinal use:
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| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| General types of ailments this species is used for treating | Infectious diseases, Common ailments, Systemic disorders | |
| Specific ailments for which the species is used | ||
| Medicinal systems which use this plant | Ayurveda, Folk Medicine | |
| Details of Medicinal use | Leaf extracts have been shown to have lipid-reducing and blood-sugar reducing actions. They may also be fungicidal. In mice, Garam Masala has been shown to affect cancer progression and influence macrophage functions. | Google Scholar Search, Kala07 |
| Parts of the plant used for treatment | Leaves | |
| Names of some medicinal active compounds in this plant, if known. | ||
| Details of the active chemical compounds found in this plant | ||
| Is the molecular basis of the medicinal action known? | ||
| Details of molecular basis of action | ||
| Are the toxic effects of consumption of this plant known? | ||
| Details of the toxic effects of the plant species | ||
| Have there been validation/clinical studies related to this plant? | ||
| Details of the clinical studies related to the plant species |
| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Is this plant/plant-derived product used in food preparations? | Yes | User-reported |
| Part(s) of the plant used in the food preparations | Bark, Leaves | |
| Details of use in food preparations | [[Food use description::Tejpatta is used frequently in Indian cooking, especially in North Indian Mughlai foods such as biryani [बिरयानी] and Kormas. The leaves are an important component of Garam Masala. The taste and aroma of the leaf mainly comes from the monoterpenoids such as Linalool present in the leaf.]] | |
| Does this species have any religious significance? | ||
| Religions which mention/give significance to this species | ||
| Religious occasions | ||
| Details of religious use |
| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Is this plant cultivated commercially in India? | Yes | |
| Uses for which the plant is commercially cultivated | Human consumption, Medicinal use, Cosmetic use | |
| Plant parts of commercial value | Bark, Leaves | |
| Products where this plant is used | User-reported | |
| Description of use | Used all over India for cooking. Is an important ingredient in many pre-packaged foods too. Is a constituent of Chyawanprash. Leaves are also used in the perfume industry for their fragrance. | Gauravm |
| States where this plant is cultivated commercially | ||
| Best period for planting this plant | ||
| Best period for harvesting this plant | ||
| Method of propagation | ||
| Water requirement of this plant | ||
| Pests and Diseases affecting this plant during cultivation | ||
| Other considerations while cultivating this plant |
Pubmed Word cloud
This word cloud is obtained using the tool LigerCat by searching the Pubmed database. LigerCat builds the cloud from the most relevant Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms. Each term's relative size indicates how many times it appears in the PubMed search results. Click on a term to access the full LigerCat cloud, with live PubMed search capabilities. LigerCat has been developed for the Biology of Aging Project.
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- If there is an error message below, it means that there is no retrievable information available on NCBI
- If the number of nucleotide sequences is less than 100, very little genomic work has been done on this species. A respectable number of nucleotide sequences is above 10000.
- Most of the nucleotide sequences may come from three sources:
- Studies on single genes, where people try to sequence genes such as some specific dehydrogenases important,say, for tannin production
- Sequences of Ribosomal Internal Transcribed Spacer, whose sequence is used for generating molecular phylogenetic trees to establish species relationships
- Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) which can tell about which genes are present and expressed in the species at a particular time in the given tissue
{{#queryDB:taxonomy |Cinnamomum tamala }}
| Parameter | Value(s) | References See complete references in the References section at the end |
|---|---|---|
| Details of modern scientific knowledge available for this species | ||
| Are herbarium specimen available for this species? | ||
| Institutes having herbarium samples |
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References
Joshi09 (Journal) : Joshi SC, Padalia RC, Bisht DS, Mathela CS. (2009 Sep),Terpenoid diversity in the leaf essential oils of Himalayan Lauraceae species., Chem Biodivers.:6(9):1364-73.. doi={{{doi}}}
Kala07 (Journal) : Kar et al (January 2003),Comparative evaluation of hypoglycaemic activity of some Indian medicinal plants in alloxan diabetic rats, Journal of Ethnopharmacology:84(1):105-108. doi=10.1016/S0378-8741(02)00144-7
Rao (Journal) : AR Rao, S Hashim (1995),Chemopreventive action of oriental food-seasoning spices mixture Garam masala on DMBA-induced transplacental and translactational carcinogenesis in mice, Nutrition and cancer:23(1):91-101. doi={{{doi}}}
Encyclopedia of Life (Web): Encyclopedia of Life entry, Accessdate=2010-10-19
eFloras (Web): eFloras of Pakistan, Accessdate=2010-10-19
Flowers of India (Web): Flowers of India:Bay Leaf, Accessdate=2010-10-19
ENVIS (Web): ENVIS entry on this species, Accessdate=2010-10-19
