Melaleuca cajuputi Powell

DeFilipps, Robert A. & Krupnick, Gary A., 2018, The medicinal plants of Myanmar, PhytoKeys 102, pp. 1-341 : 126-127

Melaleuca cajuputi Powell

Name.

English: cajeput.

Range.

Cultivated in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. Reported from Myanmar.

Uses.

Oil: Combined with camphor and considered beneficial for gout; internally, considered to be a diffusible stimulant quickening the heart action.

Notes.

In China the species is used as a disinfectant; in Indo-China it is used in an embrocation for rheumatism and joint pain, as a local analgesic, and the oil may be inhaled for rhinitis and colds, also used in surgery; in Cambodia "the leaves of a special variety are used in an infusion to treat dropsy"; on the Malay Peninsula a minute portion of the oil is dropped on sugar to treat colic and cholera, and is also a fragrant stomachic and an anodyne ( Perry 1980). In Indonesia it is used externally to treat colic, headache, toothache, earache, leg cramps, various types of pains, skin disease, fresh wounds, and burns; internally, a small dose serves as a diaphoretic, an antispasmodic, and a stimulant; softened bark is used to ripen abscesses and draw out pus; the fruit is used with leaves of Baechkea frutesces to treat stomach problems ( Perry 1980). In the Philippines the leaves are used to treat asthma; in New Guinea the oil is rubbed on the body for malaria ( Perry 1980).

Reported constituents include cajuputol ("identical with eucalyptol or cineole"), terpenol, 1-pinene, and aldehydes ( Perry 1980).

Reference.

Perry (1980).