Commiphora caudata is an Indian medicinal plant which is also popular as hill mango. It is widely distributed in dry deciduous and scrub forests of interior Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu. Commonly this plant is known as mavu in Kannada; kiluvai in Tamil and mamidi in Telugu.
Commiphora caudata is an unarmed deciduous shrub or small tree with papery bark. Leaves are compound; leaflets usually of 3-5, ovate or elliptic, glabrous, apex acute or typically acuminate. The leaflets are terminal and long petioled. The small flowers are borne in a long-peduncled paniculate dichasium up to 10 cm long; calyx glabrous, petals brownish-red, 0.5 cm long. The fruit is a sub globose drupe and 1.2 cm in diameter.
Commiphora caudata is important for its medicinal properties. The bark and leaves yield a gum-resin which is used to prepare medicines in southern India. An extract of the stem bark has been found to possess antiviral properties.
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