The bitter bark is used in local medicine as an antiperiodic, astringent and febrifuge. It contains scopoletin and a very bitter glycoside. The heartwood is white when fresh, becoming yellow-grey or pale grey-brown on exposure, not clearly demarcated from the sapwood; grain straight; texture moderately fine to slightly coarse and even. The wood is soft to moderately hard and moderately strong. It works very easily and turns well. The wood is not durable when exposed to the weather or in contact with the ground and is moderately resistant to preservative treatment. It is somewhat liable to borers, especially when left debarked. The wood is used locally in house building, e.g. for planks, and sometimes for boats; it is also used for boxes, scabbards, packing-cases, implements, toys and matches. In India it has been recommended for cheaper grades of furniture, warper bobbins and wood-wool board. 

ഇതിന്റെ കയ്പുള്ള തടിക്ക് പ്രാദേശിക ഔഷധമായി പ്രചാരമുണ്ട്. ആർത്തവസംബന്ധിയായ പ്രശ്നങ്ങൾക്കും പനിയുടെ ചൂട് കുറയ്ക്കാനുള്ള മരുന്നായും ഉപയോഗിക്കപ്പെടുന്നു.

Deciduous trees, to 20 m high, bark 2 cm thick, grey to greyish-brown, rough, vertically fissured and cracked; blaze orange red; branches pubescent. Leaves simple, opposite, decussate; stipules interpetiolar, leafy, membranous, cauducous; petiole 3-20 cm long, stout, flattened, pubescent, slightly grooved above; lamina 10-25 x 8-20 cm, ovate or elliptic-ovate, base attenuate, apex acute or acuminate, margin entire, pubescent on both sides, chartaceous; lateral nerves 7-11 pairs, pinnate, prominent; intercostae reticulate, prominent. Flowers bisexual, pale green, 5-6 mm long, in axillary and terminal racemes; bracts 2, leafy, persistent; bracteoles linear; calyx tube short, truncate to globose, lobes 5, puberulous without, acute, deciduous; corolla tube slender, elongate, limb expanding, lobes 5, puberulous without; stamens 5, attached on the corolla limb; anthers lanceolate-sagitate; ovary 2-celled, inferior, ovules many; style long, slender, stigma fusiform. Fruit a capsule, 2.5 cm long, flat, elliptic, pendulous, 2 valved, brown; seeds many, broadly winged.