The Indian laburnum or the Amaltas is a handsome ornamental tree with yellow flowers in a long drooping terminal clusters. It is the national flower of Thailand, where it is known as Rachapruek, and its yellow leaves symbolize Thai royalty. In India, the flowers have ritual importance in the Vishu festival of Kerala. The plant, of course, has numerous medicinal benefits and is commonly used in Ayurveda to treat constipation, skin diseases, and inflammations. In fact, Amaltas is the safest laxative to be used in cases of constipation.
Botanical name: Cassia fistula
Family: Caesalpiniaceae
English name: Indian laburnum, Purging fistula
Hindi name: Amaltas, Aragvada

Cassia fistula is a moderate sized deciduous tree, 8-15 m in height.
Bark: greenish grey smooth bark when young, rough when old, exfoliating in hard scales.
Leaves: pinnately compound, leaflets 4-8 pairs, ovate, acute, bright green, glabrous above, paler and silvery pubescent beneath.
Flowers: bright yellow in lax pendulous racemes.
Fruits: cylindrical pods, 30-60 cm long, shortly stipulate.
Seeds: broadly ovate, horizontally immersed in dark coloured sweetish pulp.

Parts used as medicine: Whole plant.

Ayurvedic recommendations

Roots: Roots are stringent in taste and purgative, febrifuge and tonic in quality, the root of amaltas is used for treating conditions such as skin diseases, gland enlargements, syphilis and burning sensation.

Bark: The bark has laxative, emetic, diuretic and depurative qualities and is useful in conditions such as boils, pustules, leprosy, ringworms, colic, dyspepsia, constipation, fever, diabetes, strangury and cardiopathy.

Leaves: Leaves are laxative and depurative in nature and are used in vitiated conditions of Vata, skin diseases, leprosy, and intermittent fevers.

Flowers: Bitter in taste and acrid, emollient, and expectorant in quality, flowers of Amaltas are cool in potency. In Ayurveda, the flowers are used to treat vitiated conditions of Pitta, skin diseases, pruritus, burning sensation, dry cough, and bronchitis.

Fruits: Fruits are sweet in taste and have cool, emollient, purgative, anti inflammatory, depurative, anti pyretic, diuretic and ophthalmic properties. The fruits are useful in conditions such as vitiated conditions of Pitta, burning sensation, leprosy, skin diseases, flatulence, colic, inflammations, rheumatism, gout, anorexia, liver and spleen diseases, cardiac debility, intermittent fever, strangury, opthalmopathy and general debility.

Therapeutic uses

1. Ayurveda recommends the pulp of the pods as laxative in abdominal and skin diseases.
2. The fruit pulp with milk is used as mild laxative in liver - spleen diseases, cardiac debility, and leprosy for delicate women and old people.
3. In Ayurveda, the pulp is recommended as external application in gout, rheumatism, skin diseases and snakebite.
4. In Ayurveda, the leaves are applied externally for ringworms and other types of infections.
5. In folk medicine, the leaves and bark are grinded with water and applied externally to cure ringworms, insect bites, facial paralysis and rheumatism.
6. Ayurveda recommends root paste with milk for fever, heart diseases, retained excretions and glandular swellings.
7. Amaltas is used as folk remedy for burns, cancer, constipation, diarrhea, epilepsy, hematuria, pimples, and glandular tumors.
8. Unani medicine uses the leaves for inflammatory conditions; the flowers as a purgative; and the fruit as anti-inflammatory, abortifacient, chest complaints, heart and liver ailments, and rheumatism.
9. In the upper Sind, the leaf poultice is applied to chilblains; the plant is also used in facial massage for brain afflictions.
10. In Far Eastern medicine, the uncooked pulp of the pods is used to treat constipation and prevent kidney stones.
11. In the West Indies, the pulp and leaves is used as poultice for inflamed liver.

Side effects: There are no known side effects or interactions associated with Cassia fistula when taken in the recommended doses. However, if consumed in excess, all parts of the plant can be poisonous. There is no recorded evidence of safety in young children, pregnant or nursing women, or those with severe liver or kidney disease.