''Senegalia rugata'' is a spiny climbing shrub native to China and tropical Asia, common in the warm plains of central and south India. It is renowned as a raw material for shampoo, and the leaves and young shoots are often eaten. Archaeobotanical evidence shows its use for hair care in the pre-Harrapan levels of

Banawali Banawali (Devanagari: बनावली) is an archaeological site belonging to Indus Valley civilization period in fatehabad district, Haryana, India and is located about 120 km northeast of Kalibangan and 16 km from Fatehabad. Ban ...

, some 45004300 years ago.

Description

A woody climber, shrub, or small tree up to tall, with numerous spines. Leaves are bipinnate. Cream to pale-yellow flowers, though buds are red to purplish-red and when the flowers are open they appear cream. The seed pods are distinctive. When fresh, they are smooth, thick, and fleshy; however, when they dry, they become wrinkled, blackish, and very hard.

Distribution

The species is native to Asia, including

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Countries and regions to which it is native include:

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

( Eastern New Guinea); Indonesia ( West Papua,

Kai Islands The Kai Islands (also Kei Islands) of Indonesia are a group of islands in the southeastern part of the Maluku Islands, located in the province of Maluku (province), Maluku. The Moluccas have been known as the Spice Islands due to regionally sp ...

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...

Nusa Tenggara The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up t ...

, Maluku, Jawa,

Sumatera Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

); Philippines; Malaysia (

Peninsular Malaysia Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...

); Thailand; Cambodia; Vietnam; Zhōngguó/China (

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

); Laos; Myanmar; India (

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

, Bangladesh, Nepal, East Himalaya. It has been introduced/

naturalized Naturalization (or naturalisation) is the legal act or process by which a non-citizen of a country may acquire citizenship or nationality of that country. It may be done automatically by a statute, i.e., without any effort on the part of the in ...

to the following countries/regions: Nouvelle Caledonie; Australia (Queensland); Japan (Okinawa);

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island ...

;

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

; Seychelles;

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

(southeast); Jamaica The species is invasive in countries around the world, including

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

Habitat and ecology

In the Philippines the plant occurs in low and medium elevation thickets. The species grows both in the forest and within villages in

Chiang Mai Province Chiang Mai ( th, เชียงใหม่, ; nod, , ) is the largest Province (''changwat'') of Thailand. It lies in upper northern Thailand and has a population of 1.78 million people. It is bordered by Chiang Rai to the northeast, Lam ...

, Thailand. ''S. rugata'' grows in forest or thickets in Zhōngguó/China, most commonly near watercourses in valleys, at an altitude of between . The tree is food for the

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e of the

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the Order (biology), order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The ...

Pantoporia hordonia ''Pantoporia hordonia'', the common lascar, is a species of nymphalid butterfly found in Cambodia, tropical and subtropical Asia. Description Wet-season form Both male and female have upperside black with orange markings. Forewing: discoidal ...

''.

Archaeobotany

Pre-Harappan level of

(27502500 BC),

Haryana Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...

have revealed traces of a mixture of Shikakai with soap nuts and Amla (

Indian Gooseberry ''Phyllanthus emblica'', also known as emblic, emblic myrobalan, myrobalan, Indian gooseberry, Malacca tree, or amla, from the Sanskrit आमलकी (āmalakī), is a deciduous tree of the family Phyllanthaceae. Its native range is tropical a ...

), exhibiting ancient roots of South Asian

hygiene Hygiene is a series of practices performed to preserve health. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), "Hygiene refers to conditions and practices that help to maintain health and prevent the spread of diseases." Personal hygiene refer ...

Vernacular names

* my, ကင်ပွန်း; ''kinmun'' or ''kinbun'' * * Australian English: ''soap pod wattle'' *

Karen Karen may refer to: * Karen (name), a given name and surname * Karen (slang), a term and meme for a demanding woman displaying certain behaviors People * Karen people, an ethnic group in Myanmar and Thailand ** Karen languages or Karenic l ...

( Pang Hin Fon district): or (Chiang Mai Province, Thailand) * Khmer: ('sticky rice', an allusion to its clingy thorns), ('viscous spines'), , (evoking 'wild bean') *

Lawa language Lawa (La'wa, L'wa) is a Mon–Khmer language of Thailand. There are two distinct varieties or dialects of Lawa, considered to be separate languages; their names in the ''Ethnologue'' are Eastern Lawa and Western Lawa. They are spoken in Lawa vil ...

, Pang Hin Fon district, Chiang Mai, Thailand: ''kad ka ha'' *

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

: Chevakka kai *

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

: Shikakai * or

Uses

Shikakai in hair care

''Senegalia rugata'' has been used traditionally for hair care in the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...

since ancient times. It is one of the

Ayurvedic Ayurveda () is an alternative medicine system with historical roots in the Indian subcontinent. The theory and practice of Ayurveda is pseudoscientific. Ayurveda is heavily practiced in India and Nepal, where around 80% of the population rep ...

medicinal plant Medicinal plants, also called medicinal herbs, have been discovered and used in traditional medicine practices since prehistoric times. Plants synthesize hundreds of chemical compounds for various functions, including Plant defense against her ...

s. It is traditionally used as a

shampoo Shampoo () is a hair care product, typically in the form of a viscous liquid, that is used for cleaning hair. Less commonly, shampoo is available in solid bar format. Shampoo is used by applying it to wet hair, massaging the product into the ...

and it is also added in synthetic Ayurvedic shampoos. It is widely known as ''shikakai'', from Tamil சிகைக்காய் ''cikaikkāy'' (''cikai'' 'hair'+''kāy'' 'fruit'). In order to prepare it, the fruit pods, leaves and bark of the plant are dried, ground into a powder, then made into a paste. While this traditional shampoo does not produce the normal amount of lather that a sulfate-containing shampoo would, it is considered a good cleanser. It is mild, having a naturally low pH, and does not strip hair of natural

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

s. An infusion of the leaves has been used in anti-

dandruff Dandruff is a skin condition that mainly affects the scalp. Symptoms include flaking and sometimes mild itchiness. It can result in social or self-esteem problems. A more severe form of the condition, which includes inflammation of the skin, ...

preparations. ''Senagalia rugata'' extracts are used in natural shampoos or hair powders and the tree is now grown commercially in India and Far East Asia. The plant parts used for the dry powder or the extract are the bark, leaves or pods. The bark contains high levels of

saponin Saponins (Latin "sapon", soap + "-in", one of), also selectively referred to as triterpene glycosides, are bitter-tasting usually toxic plant-derived organic chemicals that have a foamy quality when agitated in water. They are widely distributed ...

s, which are foaming agents found in several other plant species used as shampoos or soaps. Saponin-containing plants have a long history of use as mild cleaning agents. Saponins from the plant's pods have been traditionally used as a

detergent A detergent is a surfactant or a mixture of surfactants with cleansing properties when in dilute solutions. There are a large variety of detergents, a common family being the alkylbenzene sulfonates, which are soap-like compounds that are more ...

, and in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

for poisoning fish; they are documented to be potent marine toxins. In

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

, the fruit is mixed with the bark of the '' tayaw'' (''Grewia'') tree and sometimes

lime Lime commonly refers to: * Lime (fruit), a green citrus fruit * Lime (material), inorganic materials containing calcium, usually calcium oxide or calcium hydroxide * Lime (color), a color between yellow and green Lime may also refer to: Botany ...

to make the traditional ''

tayaw kinpun ''Tayaw kinpun'' ( my, တရော် ကင်ပွန်း, ; also transliterated ''tayaw kinmun'' or ''tayaw kinbun'') is a traditional shampoo used in Myanmar. Its main ingredients are the bark of the '' tayaw'' (''Grewia'') tree and the ...

'' shampoo. Shampooing with ''tayaw kinpun'' has been an important tradition in

Burmese culture The culture of Myanmar (also known as Burma) ( my, မြန်မာ့ယဉ်ကျေးမှု) has been heavily influenced by Buddhism. Burmese culture has also been influenced by its neighbours. In more recent times, British colonial ...

since ancient times.

Burmese kings This is a list of the monarchs of Burma (Myanmar), covering the monarchs of all the major kingdoms that existed in the present day Burma (Myanmar). Although Burmese chronicles, Burmese chronicle tradition maintains that various monarchies of Bur ...

used to wash their hair with ''tayaw kinpun'' during the royal hair-washing ceremony ( my, ခေါင်းဆေး မင်္ဂလာပွဲ, label=none), in the belief that using the shampoo would cast away bad luck and bring good luck. It remains customary for many Burmese people to wash their heads with ''tayaw kinpun'', especially on the Burmese New Year's Day to leave behind impurities and bad omens of the past, and the shampoo is commonly sold in the country's open-air markets, typically in plastic bags.

Food, medicine, and other uses

This species is used in a variety of ways in Cambodia. The young leaves are included in salads. The fruit is used for washing hair and in local medicine. To treat abscesses, eczema and leprosy the fruit can also be used externally or as a laxative when they are taken internally. The pulp of the fruit, without the seeds, is used as a diuretic and emetic, while the seeds are reputed to make delivery in childbirth easier. Traditional healers of Nakhon Nayok Province, Thailand, use the leaves of this species to treat irregular menstruation. Amongst the Karen people of Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, the plant is one of the most widely used legumes. They use the fruit in a cold infusion both as soap and shampoo, and as a medicine for food poisoning. The dried fruit is used in holy water for the rituals to pay respect to elderly people and to evict wickedness. Investigating plant use amongst both Karen and

Lawa people Lawa ( th, ลัวะ or ; ) are an ethnic group in northern Thailand. The Lawa language is related to the Blang and the Wa language found in China and Burma, and belongs to the Palaungic languages, a branch of the Austroasiatic languages. Thei ...

living in Pang Hin Fon district (Chiang Mai), ''S. rugata'' was one of the plants that provided both food and health-products. The young shoots and leaves are cooked in a soup, the fruit are eaten raw or cooked, while the bark was chewed and kept as a quid in the mouth to counter-act toothache, and a decoction of the fruit was used as shampoo. An infusion of the leaves of ''Senagalia rugata'' has also been used for therapy of

jaundice Jaundice, also known as icterus, is a yellowish or greenish pigmentation of the skin and sclera due to high bilirubin levels. Jaundice in adults is typically a sign indicating the presence of underlying diseases involving abnormal heme meta ...

in the traditional Indian medicine. In Nepal, the plant is one of many that are processed and sold in the medicinal products industry. In 2004, an estimated of material was purchased nationwide by the industry at an average price of 80

Nepalese rupee The Nepalese rupee ( ne, रुपैयाँ; symbol: रु; code: NPR) is the official currency of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal. The Nepalese rupee is subdivided into 100 ''paisa''. The issuance of the currency is controlled by th ...

s. Central wholesalers provided the raw material. Acacia concinna

The leaves have an acidic taste and are used in

chutney A chutney is a spread in the cuisines of the Indian subcontinent. Chutneys are made in a wide variety of forms, such as a tomato relish, a ground peanut garnish, yogurt or curd, cucumber, spicy coconut, spicy onion or mint dipping sauce. ...

Chemical constituents

Alkaloids Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar st ...

are found in the tree's fruit. In commercial extracts, when the plant is

hydrolyzed Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile. Biological hydrolysis ...

it yields

lupeol Lupeol is a pharmacologically active pentacyclic triterpenoid. It has several potential medicinal properties, like anticancer and anti-inflammatory activity. Natural occurrences Lupeol is found in a variety of plants, including mango, '' Acaci ...

spinasterol α-Spinasterol is a stigmastane-type phytosterol found in a variety of plant sources such as spinach, from which it gets its name. The chemical was recently found in '' Gordonia ceylanica'', the first time that this chemical was found in the ''G ...

, acacic acid,

lactone Lactones are cyclic carboxylic esters, containing a 1-oxacycloalkan-2-one structure (), or analogues having unsaturation or heteroatoms replacing one or more carbon atoms of the ring. Lactones are formed by intramolecular esterification of the co ...

, and the natural sugars

glucose Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula . Glucose is overall the most abundant monosaccharide, a subcategory of carbohydrates. Glucose is mainly made by plants and most algae during photosynthesis from water and carbon dioxide, using ...

arabinose Arabinose is an aldopentose – a monosaccharide containing five carbon atoms, and including an aldehyde (CHO) functional group. For biosynthetic reasons, most saccharides are almost always more abundant in nature as the "D"-form, or structurally ...

and

rhamnose Rhamnose (Rha, Rham) is a naturally occurring deoxy sugar. It can be classified as either a methyl-pentose or a 6-deoxy-hexose. Rhamnose predominantly occurs in nature in its L-form as L-rhamnose (6-deoxy-L-mannose). This is unusual, since most o ...

. It also contains hexacosanol, spinasterone,

oxalic acid Oxalic acid is an organic acid with the systematic name ethanedioic acid and formula . It is the simplest dicarboxylic acid. It is a white crystalline solid that forms a colorless solution in water. Its name comes from the fact that early inve ...

tartaric acid Tartaric acid is a white, crystalline organic acid that occurs naturally in many fruits, most notably in grapes, but also in bananas, tamarinds, and citrus. Its salt, potassium bitartrate, commonly known as cream of tartar, develops naturally i ...

citric acid Citric acid is an organic compound with the chemical formula HOC(CO2H)(CH2CO2H)2. It is a colorless weak organic acid. It occurs naturally in citrus fruits. In biochemistry, it is an intermediate in the citric acid cycle, which occurs in t ...

succinic acid Succinic acid () is a dicarboxylic acid with the chemical formula (CH2)2(CO2H)2. The name derives from Latin ''succinum'', meaning amber. In living organisms, succinic acid takes the form of an anion, succinate, which has multiple biological ro ...

ascorbic acid Vitamin C (also known as ascorbic acid and ascorbate) is a water-soluble vitamin found in citrus and other fruits and vegetables, also sold as a dietary supplement and as a topical 'serum' ingredient to treat melasma (dark pigment spots) an ...

, and the

alkaloid Alkaloids are a class of basic, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. This group also includes some related compounds with neutral and even weakly acidic properties. Some synthetic compounds of similar ...

s calyctomine and

nicotine Nicotine is a natural product, naturally produced alkaloid in the nightshade family of plants (most predominantly in tobacco and ''Duboisia hopwoodii'') and is widely used recreational drug use, recreationally as a stimulant and anxiolytic. As ...

Gallery

Acacia concinna (5595825400).jpg Acacia concinna (5595830208).jpg Acacia concinna (5505602571).jpg, Pods Acacia concinna seeds, by Omar Hoftun.jpg, Seeds

History

The two American botanists,

Nathaniel Lord Britton Nathaniel Lord Britton (January 15, 1859 – June 25, 1934) was an American botanist and taxonomist who co-founded the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, New York (state), New York. Early life Britton was born in New Dorp, Staten Island, New ...

(18591934, co-founder of the

New York Botanical Garden The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) is a botanical garden at Bronx Park in the Bronx, New York City. Established in 1891, it is located on a site that contains a landscape with over one million living plants; the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, ...

), and

Joseph Nelson Rose Joseph Nelson Rose (January 11, 1862 – May 4, 1928) was an American botanist. He was born in Union County, Indiana. His father died serving during the Civil War when Joseph Rose was a young boy. He later graduated from high school in Liberty, ...

(18621928, of the Smithsonian), first described the taxa in 1928 in the publication ''North American Flora'' (vol. 23 120, published by the New York Botanical Garden. This taxa was subsumed into the well-known species ''Acacia concinna'', however with advances in DNA analysis and consequent revision of plant phylogeny, the species ''S. rugata'' was recognized as having precedence in 2015 by Maslin and others. The epitaph ''rugata'' is derived from (Latin), meaning 'wrinkled', referring to the state of the pods when dry.

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from1=Q50870560, from2=Q310208 rugata Flora of Assam Flora of Bangladesh Flora of Cambodia Flora of East Himalaya Flora of Guangdong Flora of Indo-China Flora of Malesia Flora of Nepal Flora of New Guinea Flora of the Andaman Islands Flora of Yunnan Hairdressing Hygiene Plants described in 1928 Plants used in Ayurveda Taxa named by Joseph Nelson Rose Taxa named by Nathaniel Lord Britton