2024 Author: Gavin MacAdam | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 13:38
Chilibukha (lat. Strychnos nux-vomica) Is a deciduous and very cute tropical tree belonging to the Loganiev family. This plant is popularly called the vomit nut.
Description
Chilibukha is an attractive deciduous tree of relatively small size, reaching a height of up to fifteen meters. Leathery shiny leaves are oval and opposite.
Greenish-whitish miniature five-membered flowers fold in the leaf axils into semi-umbellate inflorescences and are endowed with tubular miniature corollas.
The spherical fruits of the chilibukha are berry-shaped and are rather large in size and orange-reddish in color. Their peel is quite hard, besides, each fruit is equipped with well-visible intercarp, which looks like a gelatinous and completely colorless pulp. And inside this pulp are disc-shaped seeds in an amount of two to six pieces. The thickness of each seed is about 1.5 - 2.5 mm, and their diameter reaches 4 - 5 mm. All of them are slightly curved and painted in yellowish-grayish tones, and their shiny silky surfaces are covered with a huge number of pressed hairs, radially diverging from the very center. In the middle of the seeds there are tiny rounded scars, from which miniature ridges of converging hairs stretch to the edges of the seeds. And near the edges of each seed, tiny embryos that look like small papillae protrude. By the way, chilibukha seeds are so hard that they can be cut lengthwise only after boiling for a long time.
Where grows
Chilibuha grows in the northern part of Australia and in the tropical forests of South Asia (on the island of Sri Lanka, as well as in India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia). In addition, it is quite actively cultivated in the African tropics.
Application
Chilibuha seeds are considered an excellent medicinal raw material. And in medicine, nitric acid salt, called strychnine nitrate, is actively used, as well as such galenic preparations as dry fruit extract and tincture from them. By the way, strychnine nitrate is widely used as a stimulating agent for a weakened nervous system, which significantly increases reflex excitability. As for galenic preparations, they are excellent tonic, as well as stimulating metabolism. By the way, it is necessary to use Chilibuhi preparations only under the supervision of a doctor.
Chilibukha is recommended to be used with rapid fatigue and chronic fatigue, with stomach atony and hypotension, with paresis and paralysis, as well as with a noticeable weakening of cardiac activity as a result of poisoning and all kinds of infections. In case of disturbances in the functioning of the visual apparatus, this culture will also serve a good service. And the brucine contained in chilibuhi seeds is widely used as a chemical reagent.
By the way, strychnine was first extracted from chilibuha. It was back in 1818. The bitterness of this unusual substance is felt even if you add a single gram of strychnine to a whole ton of water. And the toxicity of this element is also off scale. In addition, another poison called curare is isolated from chilibuha. Europeans first met him in the 16th century through the arrows of the Indians, who actively defended their fertile lands from the conquistadors. At the same time, the locals who used the poison of curare in the hunt with great pleasure ate the meat of animals killed with the help of this poison. And this did not entail absolutely any negative consequences for the organism. And later it turned out that the curare, which got into the digestive tract, is not capable of harming a person, however, only if the mucous membranes of his esophagus and mouth were not damaged.
