About Indian laurel tree:
- Scientific name: Terminalia elliptica (syn. T. tomentosa)
- Other names: Asna; saj or saaj; Indian laurel; marutham (Tamil); matti (Kannada); ain (Marathi); taukkyan (Burma); asana (Sri Lanka); and casually crocodile bark because of the characteristic bark pattern.
- Habitat: It is mainly found in both dry and moist deciduous forests in southern India up to 1000 m.
- Distribution: It is principally native to southern and Southeast Asia in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
- Application:
- The wood of this tree is used for furniture, cabinetwork, joinery, paneling, specialty items, boat-building, railroad cross-ties (treated), decorative veneers and for musical instruments (e.g. for guitar fretboard).
- Its leaves are used as food by Antheraea paphia (silkworms) which produce the tussar silk (Tussah), a form of commercially important wild silk.
- The bark is used medicinally against diarrhoea. Oxalic acid can be extracted from it.
- The bark and especially the fruit yield pyrogallol and catechol to dye and tan leather.
