Quassia
Template:Short description Template:Automatic taxobox
Quassia (Template:IPAc-en or Template:IPAc-en) is a plant genus in the family Simaroubaceae. Its size is disputed; some botanists treat it as consisting of only one species, Quassia amara from tropical South America, while others treat it in a wide circumscription as a pantropical genus containing up to 40 species of trees and shrubs.
Taxonomy
The genus was first published in Carl Linnaeus's book Species Plantarum ed. 2. on page 553 in 1762.[1]
The genus was named after a former slave from Suriname, Graman Quassi in the eighteenth century. He discovered the medicinal properties of the bark of Quassia amara.[2]
In 1962, Dutch botanist Hans Peter Nooteboom (1934–2022) had taken a very broad view of the genus Quassia Template:Au and included therein various genera including, Hannoa Template:Au, Odyendyea Template:Au, Pierreodendron Template:Au, Samadera Template:Au, Simaba Template:Au and Simarouba Template:Au .[3][4] Then in 2007, DNA sequencing, and phylogenetic analyses was carried out on members of the Simaroubaceae family. It found that genus Samadera was a sister to Clade V and that genus Quassia was also a sister to Clade V but they had separate lineages. This suggested the splitting up of genera Quassia again, with all Nooteboom's synonyms listed above being resurrected as independent genera. This includes Samadera indica Template:Au as the accepted name for Quassia indica. The ornamental Quassia amara Template:Au, which is occasionally planted in Singapore, remains in genus Quassia.[5]
Distribution
Members of the genus are found in the Tropics throughout the world.[1] Countries and regions where species are native include: Andaman Islands, Angola, Bangladesh, Belize, Benin, Bismarck Archipelago, Borneo, northern and northeastern Brazil, Burkina, Cabinda, Cambodia, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Honduras, India, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Laos, Leeward Islands, Liberia, Madagascar, Malaya, Mali, Central, Southeast and Southwest Mexico, Myanmar, New Guinea, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Territory, Panamá, Philippines, Queensland, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sulawesi, Sumatera, Tanzania, Togo, Trinidad-Tobago, Uganda, Venezuela, Vietnam, Windward Islands, Zambia, and Zaïre.
The plant is naturalised in the following places: Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Jawa, and Puerto Rico.
Species
The only accepted species of the genus, by Plants of the World Online as of November 2023 is: Quassia amara L.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".[1]
Although World Flora Online accepts 16 species;[6]
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- Quassia africana (Baill.) Baill.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia amara L.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia arnhemensis Craven & DunlopScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia baileyana (Oliv.) Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia bidwillii (Hook.f.) Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia borneensis Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia cedron Template:Au
- Quassia crustacea (Engl.) Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia harmandiana (Pierre ex Laness.) Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia indica (Gaertn.) Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia maiana Template:Au
- Quassia pohliana (F.Boas) Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia sanguinea Cheek & JongkindScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia schweinfurthii (Oliv.) Noot.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia undulata (Guill. & Perr.) D.Dietr.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
- Quassia versicolor Spreng.Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".
There are also taxa that have not been assigned a formal status:
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- Quassia sp. 'Moonee Creek', unplaced – Australia [7]
- Quassia sp. 'Mount Nardi', unplaced – Australia
The genus has been verified by the United States Department of Agriculture and the Agricultural Research Service (Germplasm Resources Information Network) and they only list 6 species; Quassia amara, Quassia cedron (syn. Simaba cedron, Quassia excelsa (syn. Picrasma excelsa), Quassia indica (syn. Samadera indica Template:Au), Quassia simarouba (syn. Simarouba amara Template:Au) and Quassia undulata.[8]
Uses
It is the source of the quassinoids such as quassin and neo-quassin.[9] Simalikalactone D is a quassinoid that is extracted from Quassia africana for antiviral properties.[10]
References
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- ↑ a b c Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Christophe Wiart Template:Trim&pg=PA188 Medicinal Plants of Asia and the Pacific (2006), p. 188, at Google Books
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