1098

12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2

Gleditsia triacanthos L.

This article should be read together with the article on the genus: Gleditsia in the Handbook volume indicated above in this database.

Sp. pl. 2: 1056 (1753).

Honey locust (En). Carouge de miel (Fr).

Originating from the eastern United States, Gleditsia triacanthos has been widely planted and often naturalized in the Mediterranean region, the Near and Far East, Asia and northern Australia.

Honey locust is a well-known folk remedy among various tribes of Amerindians in North America. Honey locust pods are used for dyspepsia and measles. An infusion of the bark is used for whooping coughs. The bark is furthermore used for blood disorders, coughs, colds, fevers, smallpox and measles. In Argentina, a decoction of dried pods is used to cure diarrhoea. The pods are relished by livestock and constitute an excellent feed.

A tree up to 45 m tall, branches armed with simple or branched, flat thorns; leaves up to 20 cm long, bipinnate with 4—16 pairs of pinnae, or pinnate and 14—32-foliolate, leaflets oblong-lanceolate, 4 cm x 1.5 cm, sparsely crenulate; inflorescence a downy raceme up to 7 cm long, flowers 3 mm diameter, green, staminate flowers preponderant, bisexual flowers with a pedicel up to 8 mm long; fruit flat, falcate, twisted, 45 cm x 4 cm, dark shining brown, many-seeded; seed 9 mm x 5 mm, embedded in pulpy tissue. The tree could be planted especially in drier parts, and at higher elevations in South-East Asia.

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[273] Duke, J.A., 1985. Handbook of medicinal herbs. CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, United States. 677 pp.
[303] Ferguson, I.K. & Tucker, S.C. (Editors), 1994. Advances in legume systematics. Part 6. Structural botany. The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom. 259 pp.
[459] Huxley, A., Griffiths, M. & Levy, M., 1992. The new Royal Horticultural Society dictionary of gardening. 4 volumes. The MacMillan Press Ltd., London, United Kingdom. 3353 pp.
[647] Mansfeld, R., 1986. Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen) [Register of agricultural and horticultural plants in cultivation (without ornamentals)]. Schultze-Motel, J. et al. (Editors). 2nd Edition. 4 volumes. Springer Verlag, Berlin, Germany. 1998 pp.
[697] Mosolov, V.V., Valueva, T.A. & Kolosova, G.V., 1982. Isolation of protein of the chymotrypsin inhibitor from honey locust seeds. Biokhimiia 47(12): 2015—2021. (in Russian)
[880] Schildknecht, H., Muley, R., Kresbach, G.M., Kunzelmann, P. & Kranb D., 1986. Plant defense substances XXXIX. (I) Isolation, characterization and synthesis of turgorines from Gleditsia triacanthos L. Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C, Biosciences 41(5—6): 547—554.

H.C. Ong

Ong, H.C., 2001. Gleditsia triacanthos L.. In: van Valkenburg, J.L.C.H. and Bunyapraphatsara, N. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 12(2): Medicinal and poisonous plants 2. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea