Aglaia odorata

Characteristics
A shrub or small tree that can reach up to 10 m tall.

Morphology

Leaflets
3-5(-7), opposite and with 5-9 pairs of secondary veins. They are usually smooth and hairless or occasionally with few yellowish-brown stellate scales with a fringed margin below.

Flowers
5-merous, 5 anthers, style-head ovoid or narrowly ovoid, longitudinally ridged and with 2 small apical lobes.

Fruit 
Indehiscent with 1-locular.

Chemical compound
(1R,3E,7E,10S,11S,12R)-dolabella-3,7-dien-10,18-diol, (1R,3S,7E,11S,12R)-dolabella-4(16),7-dien-3,18-diol, (1R,7E,11S,12R)-18-hydroxydolabella-4(16),7-dien-3-one, (1R,3S,4S,7E,11S,12R)-3,4-epoxydolabella-7-en-18-ol, (1R,3R,7E,11S,12R)-dolabella-4(16),7,18-trien-3-ol, 5′-epi-odorine, 21,25-cyclodammar-20(22)-ene-3β,24α-diol, aglaiastatin, α-humulene, aminopyrrolidine-diamides, β-elemene, β-humulene-7-ol, caryophyllene, copaene, ethyl linolenate, ethyl palmitate, germacrene D, methyl jasmonate, odorine, odorino, pyrimidinone, and rocaglaol.

Plant part used
Leaves, roots and flowers

Traditional uses

• Decoction of the A. odorata leaves is a remedy for diarrhoea and also to treat excessive menstruation.
• The flowers are also used to treat cough, vertigo, and to ease childbirth .
• It also applied to body of women after childbirth .
• The dried flowers and buds are used to scent tea.
• Leaves and roots are reported used to reduce fever, relieve chest or respiratory tract disorders, for convulsion and consumed as a tonic.

Medicinal uses

•  Crithidia shares a variety of biochemical mechanisms with the genera Leishmania and Trypasoma and has been used to assess anti-protozoal activity. It was found that extracts of the leaves of A. odorata was able to inhibit Crithidia providing evidence that it may have similar activity against Leishmania and Trypasoma
• A. odorata extracts were found to have the following effects of Herpes Simplex Virus type 1 (HSV-1): inhibition of plaque formation of HSV-1; effective against thymidine kinase-deficient HSV-1 and phosphonoacetate-resistant HSV-1 strains; and limit development of skin lesion.
• A number of bifurans isolated from A. odorata were found to be active against three plant pathogens i.e. Pyricularia grisea, Fusarium avenaceum and Alternaria citri. Of these the most active was found to be rocaglaol. -A. odorata contains a number of compounds with cytotoxic activity. Odorine and 5’-epi-odorine were found to inhibit the growth of vinblastine-resistant KB cells by enhancing the anticancer activity of vinblastine.

Aglaia odorata (Lour.,1790)

Nur Athirah Roshaizi

Nur Athirah Roshaizi

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