Oroxylum Indicum - Medicinal Plant

The large leaf stalks wither and fall off the tree and collect near the base of the trunk, appearing to look like a pile of broken limb bones. The pinnate leaves are approximately 1 metre (3.3 ft) in length and comparably wide,borne on petioles or stalks up to 2 metres (6.6 ft) in length, making this the largest of all dicot tree leaves, which are quadripinnate (leaflets display four orders of branching).

The tree is a night-bloomer and flowers are adapted to natural pollination by bats. They form enormous seed pods – the fruits – are up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) long that hang down from bare branches, resembling swords.The long fruits curve downward and resemble the wings of a large bird or dangling sickles or swords in the night, giving the name "tree of Damocles".The seeds are round with papery wings.

Kurz has been used for centuries as a traditional medicine in Asia in ethnomedicinal systems for the prevention and treatment of several diseases, such as jaundice, arthritic and rheumatic problems, gastric ulcers, tumors, respiratory diseases, diabetes, and diarrhea and dysentery, among others