Chaulmoogra Oil (Hydnocarpus): The Forgotten Skin Remedy of the Western Ghats

Few people outside Kerala have heard of chaulmoogra oil. Yet for much of history it was among the most important skin medicines in the world. It is also one of the less common ingredients in Anjenna Plus.

The tree

Chaulmoogra oil is pressed from the seeds of Hydnocarpus trees. In Kerala the species is Hydnocarpus pentandrus (also called H. wightiana), a tree of the Western Ghats forests known in Malayalam as marotti. In Ayurveda the plant is called tuvaraka.

A remedy for the hardest skin disease

Ayurvedic texts list tuvaraka among remedies for kushtha, a category that included leprosy. The oil was used for centuries in India and across Asia, and in the 19th century it entered Western medicine as the standard treatment for leprosy (Hansen's disease).

The oil was difficult to use: it was unpleasant to swallow and painful to inject. In 1916, the American chemist Alice Ball developed a method to convert the oil's fatty acids into an injectable form — known for years as the "Ball method" — which became the leading leprosy treatment until the arrival of sulfone drugs such as dapsone in the 1940s.

What makes the oil unusual

Chaulmoogra oil is rich in rare cyclopentenyl fatty acids — chiefly hydnocarpic and chaulmoogric acids — which are found in very few other plants. These compounds were thought responsible for the oil's activity against the bacteria that cause leprosy.

Chaulmoogra today

Modern leprosy is cured with multi-drug therapy, not chaulmoogra. But the oil has kept a place in traditional skin care in India, where it is used in small amounts in oils and soaps for itchy, rough and troubled skin. A review in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology traced its long dermatological history.

It should be used carefully: chaulmoogra oil is potent, is never taken internally at home, and in cosmetics is used in small proportions within a carrier such as coconut oil.

Chaulmoogra in Anjenna Plus

Anjenna Plus includes Hydnocarpus pentandrus oil as part of its blend of precious oils, alongside neem, turmeric, sesame and almond in a coconut-oil base. It is a small link to a remarkable chapter in the history of medicine — and to the forests a few hours east of Alappuzha.

References: Norton SA. Useful plants of dermatology. I. Hydnocarpus and chaulmoogra. J Am Acad Dermatol. 1994;31(4):683–686. · Parascandola J. Chaulmoogra oil and the treatment of leprosy. Pharmacy in History. 2003;45(2):47–57.