Fibraurea tinctoria
Species of plant
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fibraurea tinctoria is a species of flowering plant in the family Menispermaceae.[2][3] It is native to Assam, Borneo, Cambodia, India, Java, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Nicobar Islands, the Philippines, Sulawesi, Sumatra, Thailand, and Vietnam, where it grows in wet tropical areas.[1] It is considered locally common.[4] It fruits in April and May, producing yellow-orange drupes.[4] Common names for this plant include yellow root (East Kalimantan), akar palo[what language is this?] (Aceh), and akar kuning (Indonesian) (Central Kalimantan).[5]
| Fibraurea tinctoria | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Order: | Ranunculales |
| Family: | Menispermaceae |
| Genus: | Fibraurea |
| Species: | F. tinctoria |
| Binomial name | |
| Fibraurea tinctoria | |
| Synonyms[1] | |
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Research
The plant is used in Indonesian traditional medicine, primarily because it contains berberine, an isoquinoline alkaloid under preliminary research to identify its possible properties.[6][better source needed]
During a field observation, a male Sumatran orangutan, known to researchers as Rakus, chewed vine leaves and applied the masticated plant material to an open wound on his face.[5] According to primatologists who had been observing Rakus at a nature preserve, "Five days later the facial wound was closed, while within a few weeks it had healed, leaving only a small scar."[5][7]
