Toddalia asiatica

Toddalia asiatica can reach a height of 10m in forests as it uses other trees for support. The corky stems are covered with knobby thorns and are yellow when cut. The attractive shiny trifoliate leaves are light to dark green and are extremely aromatic, smelling of lemon when crushed. The twigs are covered in small, recurved thorns. The small, greenish-yellow flowers appear in spring and the plant continues flowering until the beginning of autumn.

The berry-like fruits are borne right through summer. The fruit, 5-7mm in diameter, are orange in colour when ripe and taste like the skin of an orange.

Toddalia asiatica is used medicinally by Venda herbalists. The fruit is used by the Massai as a cough remedy and the roots in the treatment of indigestion and influenza. The leaves are used for lung diseases and rheumatism. The root and its bark have been used as a remedy for fever, malaria, cholera, diarrhoea and rheumatism. Usher (1974) reports that in India a yellow dye is extracted from the roots (called Lopez Root) and the root bark is used medicinally as a tonic and for stomach ailments.

Toddalia asiatica is part of the catalog of ayurvedic medicinal plants of Sri Lanka.