Pacific Rosewood / Portia Tree

Ethanol extracts of the flower have shown antihepatotoxic activity.

Aqueous extracts of the fruit have shown wound-healing activity in rats after topical or oral administration.

The seed oil has anti-amoebic activity.

The heartwood is carminative. It is useful in treating pleurisy, cholera, colic and high fevers.

The fruit juice is used to treat herpes.

The crushed fruit is used in a treatment for urinary tract problems and abdominal swellings.

The cooked fruit, crushed in coconut oil, provides a salve, which, if applied to the hair, will kill lice.

An extract of the fruit is applied to swollen testicles.

A leaf tea is taken as a treatment for rheumatism and urinary retention.

A decoction of the leaves is used in treating coughs, influenza, headache and relapses in illnesses.

The leaf sap, and decoctions of most parts of the plant, are used externally to treat various skin diseases.

Juices from the pounded fruits, mixed with pounded leaves are used in a poultice to treat headaches and itches.

A decoction of the bark and fruit is mixed with oil and used to treat scabies.
A decoction of the astringent bark is used to treat dysentery and haemorrhoids, and a maceration of it is drunk for colds.

A cold infusion of the bark is used in treating dysentery, diabetes, gonorrhoea, yellow urine, and thrush.

Indigestion, pelvic infection, dysmenorrhoea, infertility, secondary amenorrhoea, appetite loss, ulcers and worms are also treated with the bark.

The inner bark is used to treat constipation and typhoid.

The stem is employed in treating breast cancer.

Other extracts of the plant have significant antimalarial activity.

Leaf and bark decoctions are taken as a remedy for high blood pressure.

Seeds are purgative.