Its wood is soft and makes excellent charcoal for gunpowder. The leaves contain a bitter crystalline alkaloid Vasicine, and an organic adhatodic acid, another alkaloid and an odorous volatile principle.
Large doses irritate the alimentary canal and cause diarrhoea and vomiting.
Adhatodic acid is believed to exert a strong poisoning influence upon the lower forms of animals and vegetable life, though nonpoisonous to the higher animals.