Mimosa tenuiflora

Mimosa tenuiflora
Mimosa tenuiflora
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Mimosoideae
Genus: Mimosa
Species: M. tenuiflora
Binomial name
Mimosa tenuiflora
(Willd.) Poir.[1][2]
Range of Mimosa tenuiflora
Synonyms
  • Acacia hostilis Mart.
  • Acacia jurema Mart.
  • Acacia tenuiflora Willd.
  • Mimosa cabrera H. Karst.
  • Mimosa hostilis (C. Mart.) Benth.
  • Mimosa limana Rizzini

Mimosa tenuiflora, syn. Mimosa hostilis (Jurema Preta, Calumbi (Brazil), Tepezcohuite (México), Carbonal, Cabrera ) is a perennial tree or shrub native to the northeastern region of Brazil (Paraíba, Rio Grande do Norte, Ceará, Pernambuco, Bahia) and found as far north as southern Mexico (Oaxaca and coast of Chiapas), and the following countries: El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela.[3] It is most often found in lower altitudes, but it can be found as high as 1,000 m (3,300 ft).[3]

Description

The fern-like branches have leaves that are Mimosa like, finely pinnate, growing to 5 cm (2.0 in) long. Each compound leaf contains 15–33 pairs of bright green leaflets 5–6 mm (0.20–0.24 in) long. The tree itself grows up to 8 m (26 ft) tall[3] and it can reach 4–5 m (13–16 ft) tall in less than 5 years. The white,[3] fragrant flowers occur in loosely cylindrical spikes 4–8 long. In the Northern Hemisphere it blossoms and produces fruit from November to June or July.[4] In the Southern Hemisphere it blooms primarily from September to January. The fruit is brittle and averages 2.5–5 cm (0.98–1.97 in) long. Each pod contains 4–6 seeds that are oval, flat, light brown and 3–4 mm (0.12–0.16 in) in diameter. There are about 145 seeds/1 g (0.035 oz).[5] In the Southern Hemisphere, the fruit ripens from February to April.

Small Mimosa tenuiflora stem and roots

The tree's bark is dark brown to gray. It splits lengthwise and the inside is reddish brown.

The tree's wood is dark reddish brown with a yellow center. It is very dense, durable and strong, having a density of about 1.11 g/cm³.[6]

Mimosa tenuiflora does very well after a forest fire, or other major ecological disturbance.[7] It is a prolific pioneer plant.[7] It drops its leaves on the ground, continuously forming a thin layer of mulch and eventually humus. Along with its ability to fix nitrogen, the tree conditions the soil, making it ready for other plant species to come along.

Medicinal uses

Mimosa tenuiflora root bark
Mimosa tenuiflora

A tea made of the leaves and stem has been used to treat tooth pain.[8] For cases of cough and bronchitis, a water extract (decoction) of Mimosa tenuiflora is drunk.[9] A handful of bark in one liter of water is used by itself or in a syrup.[9] The solution is drunk until the symptoms subside.[9]

One preliminary clinical study found Mimosa tenuiflora to be effective in treating venous leg ulcerations.[10]

Aqueous extracts of Mimosa are widely used for wound healing[11][12] and burns in Middle and South America.

Other uses

Mimosa tenuiflora syn. Mimosa hostilis provides life saving food for animals in drought.

The tree is an acceptable source of forage or fodder for animals, providing vital protein and other nutrients.[7] It does well in the dry season and in drought, while providing life saving food for local livestock and animals.[7] Cows, goats and sheep eat the pods and leaves. There seems to be evidence that Mimosa tenuiflora forage or fodder cause development defects to pregnant ruminants in Brazil.[13][14]

The tree is an important source of forage for bees, especially during the dry season and in the beginning of the wet season.

Like most plants in the Fabaceae family, Mimosa tenuiflora fertilizes the soil via nitrogen fixing bacteria.[15] The tree is useful in fighting soil erosion and for reforestation.

Mimosa tenuiflora

Mimosa tenuiflora is a very good source of fuel wood and works very well for making posts,[15] most likely because of its high tannin content (16%[16]), which protects it from rot. Due to its high tannin content, the bark of the tree is widely used as a natural dye and in leather production. It is used to make bridges, buildings, fences, furniture and wheels. It is an excellent source of charcoal and at least one study has been done to see why this is the case.[17]

The healing properties of the tree make it useful in treating domestic animals. A solution of the leaves or bark can also be used for washing animals in the prevention of parasites. Because the tree keeps most of its leaves during the dry season, it is an important source of shade for animals and plants during that time.

Chemistry

The bark is known to be rich in tannins, saponins, alkaloids, lipids, phytosterols, glucosides, xylose, rhamnose, arabinose, lupeol, methoxychalcones and kukulkanins.[18]

Entheogenic uses

Mimosa tenuiflora' syn. Mimosa hostilis

Mimosa tenuiflora is an entheogen known as Jurema, Jurema Preta, Black Jurema, and Vinho de Jurema. Dried Mexican Mimosa tenuiflora root bark has been recently shown to have a DMT (Dimethyltryptamine) content of about 1-1.7%.[3] The stem bark has about 0.03% DMT.[19]

The parts of the tree are traditionally used in northeastern Brazil in a psychoactive decoction also called Jurema or Yurema. Analogously, the traditional Western Amazonian sacrament Ayahuasca is brewed from indigenous ayahuasca vines. However, to date no β-carbolines such as harmala alkaloids have been detected in Mimosa tenuiflora decoctions, yet the Jurema is used in combination to several plants.[20][21][22][23]

This presents challenges to the pharmacological understanding of how DMT from the plant is rendered orally active as an entheogen. In this view, if MAOI is neither present in the plant nor added to the mixture, the enzyme MAO will metabolize DMT in the human gut, preventing the active molecule from entering blood and brain.

The isolation of the chemical compound yuremamine from Mimosa tenuiflora as reported in 2005 represents a new class of phyto-indoles,[24] which may explain an apparent oral activity of DMT in Jurema.

Cultivation

Mimosa tenuiflora

For outside planting, USDA Zone 9 or higher is recommended.[25]

In nature, Mimosa tenuiflora "[...] fruits and seeds are disseminated by the wind in a radius of 5–8 m (16–26 ft) from the mother plant; rain carries them from slopes to lower plains and human activities contribute to their dissemination."[26]

For cultivation, the seed pods are collected once they start to spontaneously open on the tree. The collected pods are laid out in the sun so that the pods open up and release their seeds. The seeds can then be planted in sandy soil with sun exposure.

Scarification of the seed via mechanical means or by using sulfuric acid greatly increases the germination rate of the seeds over non-treatment.[26] The seeds can be sown directly into holes in the ground or planted in prepared areas.

The seeds can germinate in temperatures ranging from 10 to 30 °C, but the highest germination rate occurs at around 25 °C (about 96%), even after four years of storage.[26] Germination takes about 2–4 weeks.

It is also possible to propagate Mimosa tenuiflora via cuttings.[3]

Trimming adult Mimosa tenuiflorae during the rainy season is not recommended because it can cause them to perish.[6]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Acacia tenuiflora - ILDIS LegumeWeb". ildis.org. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  2. ↑ "Mimosa tenuiflora information from NPGS/GRIN". ars-grin.gov. Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Rätsch, Christian. Enzyklopädie der psychoaktiven Pflanzen. Botanik, Ethnopharmakologie und Anwendungen. Aarau: AT-Verl. p. 15. ISBN 978-3-85502-570-1.
  4. ↑ Camargo-Ricalde SL (December 2000). "[Description, distribution, anatomy, chemical composition and uses of Mimosa tenuiflora (Fabaceae-Mimosoideae) in Mexico]". Rev. Biol. Trop. (in Spanish). 48 (4): 939–54. PMID 11487939.
  5. ↑ "Mimosa hostilis (Jurema Preta) in Profile". b-and-t-world-seeds.com. Retrieved 2008-05-04.
  6. 1 2 "Kew: Northeast Brazil Fuelwood Project - activities and progress". kew.org. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Ivonete Alves Bakke; Olaf Andreas Bakke; Alberício Pereira Andrade; Ignacio Hernan Salcedo (Mar 2007). "Forage yield and quality of a dense thorny and thornless "jurema-preta" stand". Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira. 42 (3). doi:10.1590/S0100-204X2007000300006. ISSN 0100-204X.
  8. ↑ Ulysses P de Albuquerque (2006). "Table 1: List of medicinal plants used in a rural community in the municipality of Alagoinha, Pernambuco, NE Brazil". Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine. Re-examining hypotheses concerning the use and knowledge of medicinal plants: a study in the Caatinga vegetation of NE Brazil. 2 (1): 30. doi:10.1186/1746-4269-2-30.
  9. 1 2 3 de Fátima Agra M, de Freitas PF, Barbosa-Filho JM (2007). "Synopsis of the plants known as medicinal and poisonous in Northeast of Brazil" (PDF). Brazilian Journal of Pharmacognosy. 17 (1): 114–40. doi:10.1590/S0102-695X2007000100021. ISSN 0102-695X. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2010-08-21.
  10. ↑ Rivera-Arce E, Chávez-Soto MA, Herrera-Arellano A, et al. (February 2007). "Therapeutic effectiveness of a Mimosa tenuiflora cortex extract in venous leg ulceration treatment". J Ethnopharmacol. 109 (3): 523–8. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2006.08.032. PMID 17088036.
  11. ↑ Kokane, Dnyaneshwar D.; More, Rahul Y.; Kale, Mandar B.; Nehete, Minakshi N.; Mehendale, Prachi C.; Gadgoli, Chhaya H. (July 2009). "Evaluation of wound healing activity of root of Mimosa pudica". Journal of Ethnopharmacology. 124 (2): 311–315. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2009.04.038. PMID 19397984.
  12. ↑ Hemmati, Ali A; Aghel, Nasrin; Rashidi, Iran; Gholampur-Aghdami, Ali (October 2011). "Topical grape (Vitis vinifera) seed extract promotes repair of full thickness wound in rabbit". International Wound Journal. 8 (5): 514–520. doi:10.1111/j.1742-481X.2011.00833.x. PMID 21816000.
  13. ↑ Medeiros RM, de Figueiredo AP, Benício TM, Dantas FP, Riet-Correa F (February 2008). "Teratogenicity of Mimosa tenuiflora seeds to pregnant rats". Toxicon. 51 (2): 316–9. doi:10.1016/j.toxicon.2007.06.012. PMID 18078971.
  14. ↑ Pimentel LA, Correa FR, Gardner D, et al. (November 2007). "Mimosa tenuiflora as a cause of malformations in ruminants in the northeastern Brazilian semiarid rangelands". Vet. Pathol. 44 (6): 928–31. doi:10.1354/vp.44-6-928. PMID 18039908.
  15. 1 2 "Exploitation of the potential of multipurpose trees and shrubs in agroforestry" (PDF). worldagroforestry.org. 1987. ISBN 929059036X. Retrieved 2013-08-19.
  16. ↑ Rivera-Arce E, Gattuso M, Alvarado R, et al. (September 2007). "Pharmacognostical studies of the plant drug Mimosae tenuiflorae cortex". J Ethnopharmacol. 113 (3): 400–8. doi:10.1016/j.jep.2007.06.023. PMID 17709219.
  17. ↑ "Lazaro Benedito da Silva". kew.org. Archived from the original on 2009-01-24. Retrieved 2008-04-20.
  18. ↑ Camargo-Ricalde SL. (Dec 2000), "Description, distribution, anatomy, chemical composition and uses of Mimosa tenuiflora (Fabaceae-Mimosoideae) in Mexico", Rev Biol Trop., 48 (4): 939–54, PMID 11487939
  19. ↑ Jonathan Ott (1998). "Pharmahuasca: Human pharmacology of oral DMT plus Harmine". Journal of Psychoactive Drugs. 31 (2): 171–7. doi:10.1080/02791072.1999.10471741. PMID 10438001. Archived from the original on 2012-01-24. Retrieved 2013-08-19.
  20. ↑ da Mota, Clarice Novaes. Jurema's Children in the Forest of Spirits: Healing and ritual among two Brazilian indigenous groups. Intermediate Technology, 1997.
  21. ↑ MOTA, Clarice Novaes da; ALBUQUERQUE, Ulysses P.. "As muitas faces da Jurema: de espécie botânica à divindade afro-indígena." Recife: Bagaço (2002).
  22. ↑ GRUNEWALD, R. Sujeitos da jurema e o Resgate da Ciência do Índio. In: LABATE, B. & GOULART, S.(orgs). O uso Ritual das plantas de poder. São Paulo. Mercado das Letras, 2005.
  23. ↑ CAMARGO, Maria Thereza Lemos de Arruda . As plantas medicinais e o sagrado: A etnobotânica em uma revisão historiográfica da medicina popular no Brasil. 1ª ed. São Paulo: Ícone, 2014.
  24. ↑ Vepsäläinen JJ, Auriola S, Tukiainen M, Ropponen N, Callaway JC (November 2005). "Isolation and characterization of yuremamine, a new phytoindole". Planta Med. 71 (11): 1053–7. doi:10.1055/s-2005-873131. PMID 16320208.
  25. ↑ James A. Duke. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs (Second ed.).
  26. 1 2 3 Sara L. Camargo-Ricalde; Rosaura Grether (Sep 1998). "Germinación, dispersión y establecimiento de plántulas de Mimosa tenuiflora (Leguminosae) en México". Revista de Biología Tropical. 46 (3). ISSN 0034-7744.
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