Cissampelos

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Cissampelos
Cissampelos pareira Blanco2.432 edited.jpg
Cissampelos pareira illustration.
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Ranunculales
Family: Menispermaceae
Genus: Cissampelos
L.
Species

19, including:
Cissampelos capensis
Cissampelos pareira
Cissampelos sympodialis

Contents

Cissampelos is a genus of flowering plants in the family Menispermaceae. Various species of this genus have a history of use in various traditions of herbal medicine. Moreover, many of these plants were used as curare applied as arrow poison during hunting. [1]

Cissampelos pareira is used in Chinese herbology. The species is also known as abuta in Ayurvedic medicine. The Maasai people of Kenya use Cissampelos mucronata as a forage for their cattle. [2]

Selected species

21 accepted species + 1 newly discovered species

Related Research Articles

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<i>Dieffenbachia</i> Genus of plants

Dieffenbachia, commonly known as dumb caneorleopard lily, is a genus of tropical flowering plants in the family Araceae. It is native to the New World Tropics from Mexico and the West Indies south to Argentina. Some species are widely cultivated as ornamental plants, especially as houseplants, and have become naturalized on a few tropical islands.

<i>Menispermum</i> Genus of flowering plants

Menispermum (moonseed) is a small genus of deciduous climbing woody vines in the moonseed family (Menispermaceae). Plants in this genus have small dioecious flowers, and clusters of small grape-like drupes. The name, moonseed, comes from the shape of the seed, which resembles a crescent moon. The word Menispermum is derived from the Greek words μήν (mēn), meaning (crescent) moon, and σπέρμα (sperma) meaning seed. The common name moonseed is also applied to some other species in the related genus Cocculus.

<i>Combretum</i> Genus of plants in Combretaecae family

Combretum, the bushwillows or combretums, make up the type genus of the family Combretaceae. The genus comprises about 272 species of trees and shrubs, most of which are native to tropical and southern Africa, about 5 to Madagascar, but there are others that are native to tropical Asia, New Guinea and the Bismarck Archipelago, Australia, and tropical America. Though somewhat reminiscent of willows (Salix) in their habitus, they are not particularly close relatives of these.

<i>Strychnos</i> Genus of flowering plants in the family Loganiaceae

Strychnos is a genus of flowering plants, belonging to the family Loganiaceae. The genus includes about 100 accepted species of trees and lianas, and more than 200 that are as yet unresolved. The genus is widely distributed around the world's tropics and is noted for the presence of poisonous indole alkaloids in the roots, stems and leaves of various species. Among these alkaloids are the well-known and virulent poisons strychnine and curare.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Curare</span> Group of chemical substances used as poison

Curare is a common name for various alkaloid arrow poisons originating from plant extracts. Used as a paralyzing agent by indigenous peoples in Central and South America for hunting and for therapeutic purposes, curare only becomes active when it contaminates a wound or is introduced directly to the bloodstream; it is not active when ingested orally. These poisons cause weakness of the skeletal muscles and, when administered in a sufficient dose, eventual death by asphyxiation due to paralysis of the diaphragm. Curare is prepared by boiling the bark of one of the dozens of plant sources, leaving a dark, heavy paste that can be applied to arrow or dart heads. In medicine, curare has been used as a treatment for tetanus and strychnine poisoning and as a paralyzing agent for surgical procedures.

<i>Adenia</i> Genus of plants

Adenia is a genus of flowering plants in the passionflower family Passifloraceae. It is distributed in the Old World tropics and subtropics. The centers of diversity are in Madagascar, eastern and western tropical Africa, and Southeast Asia. The genus name Adenia comes from "aden", reported as the Arabic name for the plant by Peter Forsskål, the author of the genus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menispermaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

Menispermaceae is a family of flowering plants. The alkaloid tubocurarine, a neuromuscular blocker and the active ingredient in the 'tube curare' form of the dart poison curare, is derived from the South American liana Chondrodendron tomentosum. Several other South American genera belonging to the family have been used to prepare the 'pot' and 'calabash' forms of curare. The family contains 78 genera with some 440 species, which are distributed throughout low-lying tropical areas with some species present in temperate and arid regions.

<i>Abuta</i> Genus of flowering plants

Abuta is a genus in the flowering plant family Menispermaceae, of about 32 species, native to tropical Central and South America.

<i>Odontocarya</i> Genus of flowering plants

Odontocarya is a plant genus in the family Menispermaceae. It includes 38 species native to the tropical Americas, ranging from southern Mexico to northern Argentina.

Isolona is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. There are 21 species native to Africa. They occur in humid habitat types.

<i>Xylopia</i> Genus of flowering plants

Xylopia is a genus of flowering plants in the family Annonaceae. They are mostly trees and some shrubs. There are about 160 species distributed in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

<i>Cissampelos pareira</i> Species of flowering plant

Cissampelos pareira (velvetleaf) is a species of flowering plant in the family Menispermaceae.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Magnoflorine</span> Chemical compound

(S)-Magnoflorine is a quaternary benzylisoquinoline alkaloid (BIA) of the aporphine structural subgroup which has been isolated from various species of the family Menispermaceae, such as Pachygone ovata,Sinomenium acutum, and Cissampelos pareira. 

Curarea is a genus of flowering plants in the family Menispermaceae, found in tropical parts of Central and South America. They are dioecious lianas, with at least some species producing toxic compounds such as curare.

References

  1. Semwal, DK; Semwal, RB; Vermaak, I; Viljoen, A (2014). "From arrow poison to herbal medicine--the ethnobotanical, phytochemical and pharmacological significance of Cissampelos (Menispermaceae)". J Ethnopharmacol. 155 (2): 1011–28. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2014.06.054. PMID   24997389.
  2. Bussmann, R. W.; Gilbreath, Genevieve G; Solio, John; Lutura, Manja; Lutuluo, Rumpac; Kunguru, Kimaren; Wood, Nick; Mathenge, Simon G (2006). "Plant use of the Maasai of Sekenani Valley, Maasai Mara, Kenya". J Ethnobiol Ethnomed. 2: 22. doi: 10.1186/1746-4269-2-22 . PMC   1475560 . PMID   16674830.
  3. New Species of Sand-Dwelling Plant Discovered in Bolivia, Paraguay