Sinhala: Ankenda.
Chinese: Jiangzhenxiang.
Nepali: Paolay.
Assamese: Laojan.
Tamil & Malayalam: Mutta-nari.
Region: South and Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, South China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea.
Habitat: understory; gaps and fringes of low country and lower hill tropical forests of tropical Asia.
Content: essential, aromatic oils with a resinous scent.
Use: medicinal; oils for making perfumes; fruit is edible and has a sweet acidic flavor, unripe fruits have a strongly astringent, resinous taste; roots as fish-poison; wood for carving, poles, incense, house construction, charcoal for goldsmiths; tender leaves in salads and condiment.
BotanyLarge shrub or small tree.
Stem: twigs more or less angular, glabrous.
Leaves: simple or axillary, cymes or corymbose panicles, about 14 mm.
Flowers: bisexual; four sepals; four, free petals; eight stamens, not united; stigma is small, not differentiated from the style; elliptic to subolong; tapered base; greenish white; 4 to 24 cm wide; flowering from February to August.
Fruits: cream to brownish yellow drupes; slightly angled; 0.5 to 1.5 cm; short apiculate tip.
Seeds: black.