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 Botany
A flowering medium-sized tree, growing
to a height of 5-8 meters.. The trunk is woody with irregular spiny
branches. Leaves have three leaflets, smooth, alternate, up to 6 cm
long. Leaflets are dark green, elliptic, acute with entire margins.
Flowers are papilionate, petals 5 cm long, separate stamens about 1
cm long. Fruits are woody, elongated, cylindrical, up to 3 cm long.
Distribution
Native to South America.
Grown in Baguio gardens.
Properties
and constituents
Contains an alkaloid
with powerful narcotic and purgative effects.
Disinfectant.
Contains mellein, nectriapyrone, 4-hydroxymellein, scyoalone, tyrosol,
clavatol, mevinic acid, and mevalonolactone.
Parts utilized
Bark, root.
 Uses
Folkloric
In the Philippines,
not known for any medicinal use.
• In Argentina,
used as anti-inflammatory and for treatment of wounds.
• In Brazil,
several Erythrina species are used by indigenous tribes in Brazil as
insecticides, fish poison, medicine, and sleep aid.
Studies
• Analgesic: Analgesic properties of extracts
and fractions from Erythrina crista-galli (Fabaceae) leaves:
The study describes the analgesic activity of extracts from Erythrina
crista-galli leaves in experimental mice models.
•
Antimicrobial / Isoflavonoids: Study isolated isoflavonoids coumestrol, genistein and daidzein from
the acetone extract of E crista-galli leaves. The compounds showed antimicrobial
activity against Bacillus brevis.
•
Phomol / Antiinfllamatory: The majority of endophytes isolated from different collections of E
crista-galli are species of the genus Phomopsis. Phomol,
a novel antibiotic, was isolated from an endophytic fungi from the medicinal
plant E crista-galli.
Availability
Wildcrafted.
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