EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS

EUCALYPTUS GLOBULUS

 French: Eucalyptus, Gommier bleu.

Wolof: Khott bu tel GOUN: Kpinman

Myrtaceae family.

The gum tree is an evergreen tree, with a slender port, reaching 12 to 20m high, with a straight and more or less whitish bole, with a narrow crown with drooping and sparse branches. The bark is smooth, creamy white, scaly, flaking off into irregular gray, brown, or brown scales, with reddish slices turning brown. The twigs are glabrous, thin, and flexible. The leaves are alternate or opposite, glabrous, green, or glaucous.

The fruit is a woody hemispherical capsule, pedicled, crowned by a bead, and opening on the top by 3 to 4 triangular points.

Flowering takes place at the start of the dry season but can flower for a large part of the year, depending on the age of the sucker and air humidity.

The gum tree is of Australian origin, and it is planted on all types of soil, including temporarily flooded soil. It carries the disadvantages of being a real suction pump for water, often planted to dry out marshes and by its toxic root exudation, it prevents any development of another species of the tree next to it. Commission E approved the use of the leaves (internal route) and essential oil (internal and external route) of Eucalyptus globulus, to treat inflammation of the respiratory tract, as well as external applications of the oil. essential eucalyptus to relieve rheumatic pain. ESCOP has also recognized the same uses for eucalyptus essential oil.

The World Health Organization recognizes the traditional use of eucalyptus leaves (E. globulus) to relieve fever and symptoms of asthma, inflammation of the airways, bronchial tubes or throat. It recognizes the use of essential oil to treat inflammation of the respiratory tract, throat, or mucous membranes of the mouth (internal route) as well as to relieve rheumatic pain (external route).

Medicinal Uses: The leaves give gasoline (eucalyptol) which is especially famous as an expectorant and béchique (cough, bronchitis, asthma, cold, rhinitis). They are also febrifuge, tonic (asthenia), astringent, fairly antiseptic (vaginitis) hemostatic (dysmenorrhea), and deworming. However, the leaves are poisonous in high doses.

The gum is used to treat diarrhea. Eucalyptus globulus is highly regarded for its fast-growing wood. It is the most used in reforestation. It provides a reddish, hard, durable wood that is fairly termite resistant and very useful in construction, for poles, fence posts, firewood, and charcoal. The leaves are also used in fumigation to hunt insects