Muhammad Siddiq Zaman, Shahidul Islam Shamim, Mehran Samiul and I were walking along a winding path through thick forest in the Mirpur Botanical Garden, going deeper and deeper in. It was completely quiet. Only crickets, nothing else. Suddenly I caught a sweet smell. I looked around and couldn’t find anything. What was it? A little further on Zaman said, “I can smell something sweet. Can anyone else?” We all said yes. We could smell it, but what it was and where it came from was still a mystery.
Anyway, it had to be coming from somewhere. I wasn’t wearing proper shoes, so I didn’t feel like leaving the path to search, and we just kept walking. A bit further on I saw some flowers lying on the path. At first they fooled me with their looks. I thought they were decorative flowers, the kind shops keep on display for years without them ever wilting.
Anyone would be happy to see flowers like that. It looked as if someone had painted a neat alpona design on the petals. I didn’t notice that I had stopped with a flower in my hand while the others walked on, and they didn’t notice either. Then Shamim called out, “Hasan, what are you doing? Come on.” I showed them the flower. There were plenty more lying along the edge of the path. When I held one up to my nose, there it was. This was where the sweet smell came from. But where had the flower come from?
Whose flower was it? There were lots of trees around, but none of them had any flowers that I could see. Had the storm the day before blown them in from somewhere else? After looking all around, I squinted up through the bright sun and saw a few flowers still hanging at the tips of one tree’s branches. It was a huge tree with a massive trunk. As far up as I could see, the trunk had no branches at all. Only right at the top were there a few. The trees around it were the same. They looked like electric poles with a few branches stuck on top. So if anyone secretly wanted to pick one of these flowers, there was no way. I doubt that wish would ever come true. There was a name board on the tree: teliya garjan, scientific name Dipterocarpus turbinatus.
About the garjan
In Bangladesh its common names include garjan and kali garjan. It belongs to the Dipterocarpaceae family, which is famous for its timber. It grows well here and in several states of India.
It usually grows 30 to 45 metres tall. Its reddish brown trunk sets it apart from the trees around it.
The main compound in the trunk is an oleo-resin known as gurjun balsam. There is also an essential oil containing hydrocarbons, beta-caryophyllene, humulene and some sesquiterpenes and sesquiterpene alcohols. The bark contains bergenin, and the seeds are known to be very rich in urease.
Uses
The oil from this tree is also called garjan oil. In Cambodia the hard resin is used to make things, especially torches. The wood is used for plywood. In several countries it is used to treat gonorrhoea, leprosy and other skin diseases, and it works well on ringworm. It may also help with rheumatism and gleet, a kind of infection.
In China and a few other countries garjan is planted both for its looks and as a medicinal plant. As for why it gets planted here, maybe it’s fine if we don’t know.
The medicinal uses mentioned here are for general interest only. Please talk to a doctor before using any plant to treat an illness.
References
- Encyclopedia of Flora & Fauna of Bangladesh, vol. 7.
- Abdul Ghani (2003), Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipterocarpus_turbinatus
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271642103
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