Anthopterus wardii | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Plantae |
Clade: | Tracheophytes |
Clade: | Angiosperms |
Clade: | Eudicots |
Clade: | Asterids |
Order: | Ericales |
Family: | Ericaceae |
Genus: | Anthopterus |
Species: | A. wardii |
Binomial name | |
Anthopterus wardii Ball | |
Anthopterus wardii, the aengue mishito, is a species of Anthopterus belonging to the family Ericaceae. It is native to the tropical regions of Central and South America, such as Panama, Colombia, and Ecuador. [1]
Anthopterus wardii is a flowering shrub with flowers ranging from pink to orange in color and 8–10 mm long. Its leaves are elliptic to ovate-elliptic and 4–10 x 1.5–3.5 cm in size. [2] Its racemose usually have 2–10 flowers.
Anthopterus wardii has possible health benefits based on its antioxidant properties and phenolic profile. [3] This can be the precursor for many compounds with health benefits including, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and antimutagenic activities. [4] It is possible that the antioxidants can help prevent heart disease. [5]
The Ericaceae are a family of flowering plants, commonly known as the heath or heather family, found most commonly in acidic and infertile growing conditions. The family is large, with c. 4250 known species spread across 124 genera, making it the 14th most species-rich family of flowering plants. The many well known and economically important members of the Ericaceae include the cranberry, blueberry, huckleberry, rhododendron, and various common heaths and heathers.
A berry is a small, pulpy, and often edible fruit. Typically, berries are juicy, rounded, brightly colored, sweet, sour or tart, and do not have a stone or pit, although many pips or seeds may be present. Common examples of berries in the culinary sense are strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, red currants, white currants and blackcurrants. In Britain, soft fruit is a horticultural term for such fruits.
Vaccinium is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whortleberry), lingonberry (cowberry), and huckleberry. Like many other ericaceous plants, they are generally restricted to acidic soils.
Rambutan is a medium-sized tropical tree in the family Sapindaceae. The name also refers to the edible fruit produced by this tree. The rambutan is native to Southeast Asia. It is closely related to several other edible tropical fruits, including the lychee, longan, pulasan, and quenepa.
Prunus is a genus of trees and shrubs, which includes the fruits plums, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots, and almonds.
Polyphenols are a large family of naturally occurring phenols. They are abundant in plants and structurally diverse. Polyphenols include flavonoids, tannic acid, and ellagitannin, some of which have been used historically as dyes and for tanning garments.
Cyclanthera pedata, known as caigua, is a herbaceous vine grown for its edible fruit, which is predominantly used as a vegetable. It is known from cultivation only, and its use goes back many centuries as evidenced by ancient phytomorphic ceramics from Peru depicting the fruits.
Caffeic acid is an organic compound that is classified as a hydroxycinnamic acid. This yellow solid consists of both phenolic and acrylic functional groups. It is found in all plants because it is an intermediate in the biosynthesis of lignin, one of the principal components of woody plant biomass and its residues.
In botany, a berry is a fleshy fruit without a stone (pit) produced from a single flower containing one ovary. Berries so defined include grapes, currants, and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers, eggplants (aubergines), persimmons and bananas, but exclude certain fruits that meet the culinary definition of berries, such as strawberries and raspberries. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire outer layer of the ovary wall ripens into a potentially edible "pericarp". Berries may be formed from one or more carpels from the same flower. The seeds are usually embedded in the fleshy interior of the ovary, but there are some non-fleshy exceptions, such as Capsicum species, with air rather than pulp around their seeds.
A polyphenol antioxidant is a hypothetized type of antioxidant, in which each instance would contain a polyphenolic substructure; such instances which have been studied in vitro. Numbering over 4,000 distinct chemical structures, such polyphenols may have antioxidant activity {{{1}}} in vitro (although they are unlikely to be antioxidants in vivo). Hypothetically, they may affect cell-to-cell signaling, receptor sensitivity, inflammatory enzyme activity or gene regulation, although high-quality clinical research has not confirmed any of these possible effects in humans as of 2020.
Terminalia chebula, commonly known as black- or chebulic myrobalan, is a species of Terminalia, native to South Asia from Pakistan, India and Nepal east to southwest China (Yunnan), and south to Sri Lanka, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Inga edulis, known as ice-cream bean, ice-cream-bean, joaquiniquil, cuaniquilguama or guaba, is a fruit native to South America. It is in the mimosoid tribe of the legume family Fabaceae. It is widely grown, especially by Indigenous Amazonians, for shade, food, timber, medicine, and production of the alcoholic beverage cachiri. It is popular in Peru, Ecuador, Pernambuco-Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana and Colombia. The taxonomic name Inga is derived from its name with the Tupí people of South America (ingá) while the species name edulis is Latin for "edible". The common name "ice-cream bean" alludes to the sweet flavor and smooth texture of the pulp.
Olive leaf is the leaf of the olive tree. Although olive oil is well known for its flavor and possible health benefits, the leaf and its extracts remain under preliminary research with unknown effects on human health.
Anthocyanins, also called anthocyans, are water-soluble vacuolar pigments that, depending on their pH, may appear red, purple, blue, or black. In 1835, the German pharmacist Ludwig Clamor Marquart gave the name Anthokyan to a chemical compound that gives flowers a blue color for the first time in his treatise "Die Farben der Blüthen". Food plants rich in anthocyanins include the blueberry, raspberry, black rice, and black soybean, among many others that are red, blue, purple, or black. Some of the colors of autumn leaves are derived from anthocyanins.
In biochemistry, naturally occurring phenols are natural products containing at least one phenol functional group. Phenolic compounds are produced by plants and microorganisms. Organisms sometimes synthesize phenolic compounds in response to ecological pressures such as pathogen and insect attack, UV radiation and wounding. As they are present in food consumed in human diets and in plants used in traditional medicine of several cultures, their role in human health and disease is a subject of research. Some phenols are germicidal and are used in formulating disinfectants.
Macleania insignis, family Ericaceae is a member of the blueberry family—its most common ancestors in North America include blueberries and cranberries. The family Ericaceae is spread across the world, with a large concentration found in South America. This plant falls within the Neotropical subgroup and then Andean clade of this family. The Psammisia II section shares the closest common ancestor to this plant, and its closest split on a family tree is shared with Macleania coccoloboides and Macleania bullata. Phylogenic classification of M. insignis has primarily been carried out through an examination of morphological traits as well as genetic analysis. Macleania is an angiosperm eudicot, in the order of Ericales and the family Ericaceae.
Cavendishia grandifolia is a species of woody perennial plant of the genus Cavendishia in the family Ericaceae. It is native to Ecuador. Its fruit, commonly known as neotropical blueberries, are edible.
Byrsonima sericea is a species of semi-deciduous tree native to Brazil, Bolivia, Peru, Guyana, and French Guiana.
Plinia peruviana, commonly known as jabuticaba cabinho in Brazil, is a species of plant in the family Myrtaceae. It is endemic to central, South America.