This name is not universally accepted. Some recent works have treated it as a synonym, with the genuine name Aglaia sexipetala Griff. (treated here as a synonym of Aglaia aspera)[].

Common Name:

General Information

Aglaia aspera is a tree with a rounded crown of ascending branches; it can grow up to 29 metres tall. The bole can be free of branches for up to 12 metres, up to 40cm in diameter, sometimes with 'L'-shaped buttresses up to 1.8 metres high, 2 metres outwards and 20cm wide[].
The tree is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and source of wood.

Known Hazards

None known

Botanical References

Range

Southeast Asia - Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines to New Guinea.

Habitat

Dense, primary woodland; the more open, secondary formations; kerangas; monsoon forest and along the banks of rivers; growing on yellow sands, yellow to dark brown loams and silty clays; at elevations up to 1,600 metres[].

Properties

Edibility Rating
Other Uses Rating
Habit	Tree
Height	23.00 m
Pollinators	Insects
Self-fertile	No
Cultivation Status	Wild

Cultivation Details

The plant is often found in the wild in Kerangas forest - a type of moist, heath forest found on acidic, sandy soils that are low in nutrients, especially nitrogen[].
A dioecious species, both male and female forms need to be grown if fruit and seed are required[].

Edible Uses

Fruit - raw[]. The yellow, reddish-brown or orange-brown, subglobose fruit is up to 50mm long and 40mm wide, containing 2 seeds, each covered by a thin layer of edible flesh[].

Medicinal

The genus 'Aglaia' is the only source of the group of about 50 known representatives of compounds that bear a unique cyclopenta[b]tetrahydrobenzofuran skeleton. These compounds are more commonly called rocaglate or rocaglamide derivatives, or flavaglines, and most have been found to have potent insecticidal properties, antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial or anthelmintic bioactivity. Several of them exhibit pronounced cytotoxic activity against a range of human cancers. Since the first representative in this group was only discovered in 1982, this is one of the few recent examples of a completely new class of plant secondary metabolites of biological promise (see B. G. Wang et al., Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 32: 1223-1226. 2004; L.W. Chaidir et al., J. Nat. Prod. 64: 1216-1220. 2001)[, ].

Other Uses

The genus 'Aglaia' is the only source of the group of about 50 known representatives of compounds that bear a unique cyclopenta[b]tetrahydrobenzofuran skeleton. These compounds are more commonly called rocaglate or rocaglamide derivatives, or flavaglines, and most have been found to have potent insecticidal properties, antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial or anthelmintic bioactivity. Several of them exhibit pronounced cytotoxic activity against a range of human cancers. Since the first representative in this group was only discovered in 1982, this is one of the few recent examples of a completely new class of plant secondary metabolites of biological promise (see B. G. Wang et al., Biochem. Syst. Ecol. 32: 1223-1226. 2004; L.W. Chaidir et al., J. Nat. Prod. 64: 1216-1220. 2001)[, ].

The sapwood is yellowish-brown, orange, pinkish-yellow or reddish-brown[]. The wood is used for house construction[].

Propagation

Seed -

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