Botany
Mahogany is a deciduous, erect tree growing to a height of 10 meters, with a heavy, dark-green, and dense crown. The trunk is more or less buttressed. Bark is dark gray and ridged. Young leaves when in the flush are pink, soon turning green. Leaves are alternate, smooth, compound, about 15 centimeters long, in 3 to 6 pairs, most often 5 pairs, of leaflets. Leaflets are inequilateral, ovate to oblong-ovate, 5 to 8 centimeters long and half as wide, pointed at the tip, broadly obtuse or rounded at the base. Flowers are greenish yellow, about 8 millimeters wide, borne in axillary pannicles shorter than the foliage. Calyx is rimlike and the petals are oblong, less than 5 millimiters in length. Staminal tube is sligtly reddish, thick, and nearly as long as the corolla. Fruit is large, cylindrical, barrel-shaped, woody, grayish-brown, rough and less than 12 centimeters long. Body of the fruit splits into five thick outer valves and five thinner inside valves. The outer valves fall off when ripe exposing closely packed seeds attached by the tips of their wings. Seeds are brownish, 5 to 7 centimeters long, with a broad and thin wing and a corky, thickened part containing the embryo.

Distribution
- Recently introduction in the Philippines.
- Cultivated for the commerce of its wood.
- Native of the West Indies.

Constituents
• The bark contains tannin; leaves contain seven phragmalin limonoids.
• Two new tetranortriterpenoids, mahonin and secomahoganin were isolated from the cotyledons of SM.
• Study yields 6-Desoxyswietenine, a tetranortriterpenoid from Swietenia mahogani.
• Study on the acidic polysaccharide isolated from the gum exudate yielded residues of D-galactose, L-arabinose, L-rhamnose and D-galacturonic acide.

Properties
• Considered astringent, antipyretic, abortifacient, depurative.

Uses
Folkloric
Bark is antipyretic, tonic and astringent.
Decoction of seeds used as abortifacient.
Used for hypertension, amoebiasis, chest pains, parasitism, cancer.
Used by Ifugao migrants for malaria, cough and miscarriage. (source)
In India, bark extracts used as astringent for wounds.
Used for malaria, anemia, diarrhea, fever and dysentery.
In Africa, bark decoction used as febrifugte
Others
Wood: This is the true mahogany of commerce, yielding the highly prized reddish-brown wood.Because of its fast growth, it is much desired in Manila as a shade tree. In India, wood is a popular material for making of furniture, musical instruments, boats, caskets.

Studies
• Anti-Ulcer / Anti-H. Pylori: The Effect of Swietenia Mahogani (Mahogany) Seed Extract On Indomethacin-Inducd Gastric UlcersI in Female Sprague-Dawley Rats: Study found a potential effect on the healing of gastric ulcers, attributed to the phospholipid and long chain unsaturated fatty acid content of mahogany seeds, with a healing effect similar to that of misoprostol. Results provide an attractive possibility for H. pylori therapy.
• Hypoglycemic / Hypolipidemic: Study on streptozotocin and nicotinamide-induced type 2 diabetes in rats concludes that the ME of seeds of Swietenia macrophylla has hypoglycemic as well as hypolipidemic effect.
• Antioxidant / Xanthine Oxidase Inhibition: Study of the methanol extract of Swietania mahogani exhibited both high free radical scavenging and xanthine oxidase inhibition activities.
• Cytotoxic: Study on the cytotoxic activities of the crude ethanolic extracts of seed, bark and leaf of Sm and their various fractions showed promising results with the seed extract and some fractions showing the most significant cytotoxic properties.
• Hepatoprotective: Study of an aqueous leaf extract of S. mahogani in chronic alcohol-induced liver injury in rats exhibited hepatoprotective activity.

Availability
Wildcrafted.
Extracts and capsules in the cybermarket.