Cornus capitata Wall. 1820

Cornus capitata Wall., Fl. Ind. (Carey & Wallich ed.) 1: 434 (1820).

Cornus capitata Wall., Photo by Paco Garin

Family:

Cornaceae Bercht. & J.Presl

Synonym Name: 

Benthamia capitata (Wall.) Nakai

Benthamidia capitata (Wall.) H.Hara

Cynoxylon capitatum (Wall.) Nakai

Dendrobenthamia capitata (Wall.) Hutch.

Vietnamese name:

Giác mộc

English Name:

Bentham's cornel, evergreen dogwood, Himalayan flowering dogwood, and Himalayan strawberry-tree.

Chinese name:

头状四照花 tou zhuang si zhao hua

Description: 

This is an evergreen tree growing to 12 meters in height and width. The leaves are gray-green and pale and fuzzy underneath, and several centimeters long. It flowers during the summer in white blooms. The infructescence is a small aggregate of several individual fruits fused into a red body 2 or 3 centimeters across. It is edible but sometimes bitter. There are several varieties and hybrids.

Distribution:

Assam, China South-Central, China Southeast, East Himalaya, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet, Vietnam, West Himalaya

Ecological:

Evergreen and mixed forests; 1000–3200 m.

Flowering times:

Fl. May–Jul, fr. Sep–Nov.

Chemical constituents:

eudesm-4(15)-ene-1β,6α-diol; (4S)-4-hydroxy-1-tetralone; (-)-regiolone; p-hydroxybenzoic acid; kaempferol; isolicoflavonol; broussoflavonol F; broussonol E; kaempferol-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside; quercetin-3-O-α-L-rhamnoside.

Chemical:

21,23-epoxytirucalla-7,24-diene-3-one and 3β-acetoxy-21, 23-epoxytirucalla-7,24-diene 

Type:

Edible uses:

Fruit - raw or cooked. A bitter-sweet flavour, tasting like an over-ripe banana. The fruit can also be used in preserves. The fruit is about 25mm in diameter, it is fleshy with a number of seeds and a tough slightly bitter skin. Our experience is that some trees can produce quite pleasant tasting fruits, but many others produce fruit with a distinct and unpleasant bitterness. The fruit ripens in late autumn to early winter and will fail to ripe properly if the weather is very cold.

Medicinal uses:

The bark is used medicinally. No further information is given, though the bark is a source of tannin which is used as an astringent.

Ref:

orchidspecies.com

ipni.org

powo.science.kew.org 

efloras.org

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_capitata

practicalplants.org

Rajendra S. Bhakuni, Yogendra N. Shukla, Raghunath S. Thakur, Triterpenoids from Cornus capitata, Phytochemistry, Volume 26, Issue 9, 1987,