Gummadi Teak

                                               Compiled by Mr. N. Raghu Ram

Gmelina arborea locally known as Gamhar is a beautiful fast growing deciduous tree occurring naturally throughout greater part of India up to 1500 m. It also occurs naturally in Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and in southern provinces of China, but planted extensively in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Malaysia and on experimental basis in other countries as well. It is also planted in gardens and avenues.

Gmelina arborea is a fast growing tree, which though grows on different localities and prefers moist fertile valleys with 750-4500 mm rainfall. It does not thrive on ill drained soils and remains stunted on dry, sandy or poor soils; drought also reduces it to a shrubby form.

Gmelina arborea tree attains moderate to large height up to 30 m with girth of 1.2 to 4.5 m with a clear bole of 9-15 m. It has a smooth whitish grey (ashy) corky bark, warty with lenticular tubercles exfoliating in regular patches when old.

It is a treat to see the Gmelina arborea tree standing straight with clear bole having branches on top and thick foliage forming a conical crown on the top of the tall stem. Bark light grey coloured exfoliating in light coloured patches when old, blaze thick, a chlorophyll layer just under the outer bark, pale yellow white inside.

Gmelina arborea wood is pale yellow to cream coloured or plukish-buff when fresh, turning yellowish brown on exposure and is soft to moderately hard, light to moderately heavy, lustrous when fresh, usually straight to irregular or rarely wavy grained and medium course textured. Flowering takes place during February to April when the tree is more or less leafless whereas fruiting starts from May onwards up to June.

It is commonly planted as garden and avenue tree and also in villages along agricultural land, on village community lands and on wastelands. It is light demander, tolerant of excessive moderate drought, frost hardy, has good capacity to recover in case of frost- injury. Gamhar tree coppices very well with vigorous growth. Saplings and young plants need protection from deer and cattle. For commercial yields irrigation is compulsory by drip.

Geographical distribution

In India, Gmelina arborea occurs extensively from the Ravi eastwards in the sub-Himalayan tracts, common throughout Assam and adjoining areas of Northern West Bengal, also in South Bihar and Orissa, sporadically found in western and southern India and planted elsewhere on a large scale. It can be grown very succeseefully as a commercial crop in the plains of Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Andhra Pradesh. Gamhar most commonly occurs in West Bengal forests in mixed forests.

Utilisation of the species

Gmelina arborea timber is reasonably strong for its weight. It is used in constructions, furniture, carriages, sports, musical instruments and artificial limbs. Once seasoned, it is a very steady timber and moderately resistant to decay and ranges from very resistant to moderately resistant to termites.

Its timber is highly esteemed for door and window panels, joinery and furniture especially for drawers, wardrobes, cupboards, kitchen and camp furniture, and musical instruments because of its lightweight, stability and durability. It is also used for bentwood articles. In boat building it is used for decking and for oars. Gmelina arborea is a popular timber for picture and slate frames, turnery articles and various types of brush backs, brush handles and toys also for handles of chisels, files, saws, screw drivers, sickles etc. It is also used for manufacturing tea chests and general purpose plywood, blackboards, frame core and cross bands of flushdoor shutters.

In instrument industry gambhar timber is widely employed for the manufacture of drawing boards, plane tables, instrument boxes, thermometer scales and cheaper grade metric scales. It is also used in artificial limbs, carriages and bobbins. It is an approved timber for handles of tennis rackets, frames and reinforcements of carom boards and packing cases and crates. Gamhar is used in papermaking and matchwood industry too.

Gmelina arborea leaf is considered good for cattle (crude protein – 11.9%) and is also used as a feed to eri-silkworm.

Medicinal uses

The root and bark of Gmelina arborea are stomachic, galactagogue laxative and anthelmintic; improve appetite, useful in hallucination, piles, abdominal pains, burning sensations, fevers, `tridosha' and urinary discharge. Leaf paste is applied to relieve headache and juice is used as wash for ulcers.

Flowers are sweet, cooling, bitter, acrid and astringent. They are useful in leprosy and blood diseases.

In Ayurveda it has been observed that Gamhar fruit is acrid, sour, bitter, sweet, cooling, diuretic tonic, aphrodisiac, alternative astringent to the bowels, promote growth of hairs, useful in `vata', thirst, anaemia, leprosy, ulcers and vaginal discharge.

The plant is recommended in combination with other drugs for the treatment of snake – bite and scorpion- sting. In snake – bite a decoction of the root and bark is given internally. 

Local names

Gmelina arborea is locally called by different names in different languages:

• Assamese- gomari
• Bengali- gamari, gambar, gumbar
• Gujarati- Shewan, Sivan
• Hindi- gamhar, khamara, khumbhari, sewan
• Kannada- kulimavu, kumbuda, kumulu
• Kasmiri- mara, shivani
• Malayalam- kumbil, kumbulu, kumilu, kumiska, pokki
• Marathi- shivan, siwan
• Oriya- bhodropornni, gambari, kumar
• Punjabi- gumhar, kumhar
• Sanskrit- bhadraparni, gambhari, gandhari, kasmari, krishnavrintaka, sarvatobhadra, shriparni
• Tamil- kumla, kumalamaram, kumil, ummithekku
• Telugu- gumartek, gummadi, summadi