Akanda Flower

Calotropis gigantea is a species of Calotropis native to Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, China, Pakistan, Nepal, Booc Booc in Somalia and tropical Africa. It is a large shrub growing to 4 m tall. It has clusters of waxy flowers that are either white or lavender in color. This plant plays host to a variety of insects and butterflies.

The flowers last long, and in Thailand they are used in various floral arrangements. They were also supposed to be popular with the Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani, who considered them as symbol of royalty and wore them strung into leis. While in Cambodia, they are used in funerals to decorate the urn or sarcophagus and the interior of the house holding the funeral. The fruit is a follicle and when dry, seed dispersal is by wind.

Calotropis is recognized as a poisonous plant in India and South Asia. The active principles are uscharin, calotoxin, calactin, and calotropin. The leaves and stem when incised yield thick milky juice. It is used as an arrow poison, cattle poison, rarely for suicide and homicide and mostly an accidental poison.

Applied to the skin, it causes redness and vesication. When taken orally, the juice produces an acrid, bitter taste and burning pain in throat and stomach, salivation, stomatitis, vomiting, diarrhea, dilated pupils, tetanic convulsions, collapse and death.