The species occurs in eucalypt and Acacia woodlands, vine scrubs and gallery forests from humid coastal regions through to the semiarid and arid inland.

[1] Joseph Maiden, in his 1889 book The Useful Native Plants of Australia, recorded that its "yellowish-brown, often thick and deeply fissured bark, is intensely bitter, and possesses valuable febrifugal and tonic properties.

It forms an orange yellow, brittle, pellucid mass, of very bitter taste, melts below 100 degrees Celsius and is carbonised at higher temperatures; dissolves easily in alcohol, ether, and dilute acids, but sparingly in water.

The hydrochloride of alstonine gives precipitates with the chlorides of platinum and mercury, iodide of potassium, the phosphomolybdate and metatungstate of soda, bichromate of potash, picric acid, and with the alkalies and alkaline carbonates.

[2] According to Maud Grieve's 1931 work, A Modern Herbal, powdered bark of Alstonia constricta was used to relieve chronic diarrhoea, dysentery, fevers, and as an anthelmintic.

[4] As of 2022[update] research into various types of bush medicine is being carried out by Central Queensland University in consultation with Ghungalu elder Uncle Steve Kemp.