''Rauvolfia'' (sometimes spelled ''Rauwolfia'') is a genus of

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has Leaf, foliage that remains green and functional throughout the year. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which lose their foliage completely during the winter or dry season. Consisting of many diffe ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, e.g., including only woody plants with secondary growth, only ...

s and

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

s, commonly known as devil peppers, in the family

Apocynaceae Apocynaceae (, from '' Apocynum'', Greek for "dog-away") is a family of flowering plants that includes trees, shrubs, herbs, stem succulents, and vines, commonly known as the dogbane family, because some taxa were used as dog poison. Notable mem ...

. The genus is named to honor Leonhard Rauwolf. The genus can mainly be found in

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the equator, where the sun may shine directly overhead. This contrasts with the temperate or polar regions of Earth, where the Sun can never be directly overhead. This is because of Earth's ax ...

regions of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...

Latin America Latin America is the cultural region of the Americas where Romance languages are predominantly spoken, primarily Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese. Latin America is defined according to cultural identity, not geogr ...

, and various oceanic islands.

Spelling

The

International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants The ''International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants'' (ICN or ICNafp) is the set of rules and recommendations dealing with the formal botanical names that are given to plants, fungi and a few other groups of organisms, all tho ...

stipulates that the genus name was established by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in his 1753 book ''

Species Plantarum ' (Latin for "The Species of Plants") is a book by Carl Linnaeus, originally published in 1753, which lists every species of plant known at the time, classified into genus, genera. It is the first work to consistently apply binomial nomenclature ...

'', which cites his earlier description which states in Botanical Latin that the name is dedicated "to Leonhard Rauwolf": "''Leon. Rauvolfio''". Although some subsequent authors hypercorrected the

Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...

letter "v" to a modern "w", this is not accepted by the code of nomenclature.

Chemical constituents

'' Rauvolfia serpentina'', commonly known as Indian snakeroot or ''sarpagandha'', contains many indole alkaloids.

Medicinal uses

Reserpine is an

alkaloid Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large varie ...

first isolated from '' R. serpentina'' and was widely used as an antihypertensive drug

Conservation

'' Rauvolfia serpentina'' is declining in the wild due to collection for its medicinal uses. Consequently, it is listed in CITES Appendix II. '' Rauvolfia vomitoria'' is a highly invasive species in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; ) is an island U.S. state, state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two Non-contiguous United States, non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only sta ...

, and is capable of establishing dense monotypic stands.

Species

Species include: ;formerly included # ''Rauvolfia celastrifolia'' Baker = '' Stephanostegia hildebrandtii'' Baill. # ''Rauvolfia dentata'' Tafalla ex D.Don = '' Citharexylum dentatum'' D.Don # ''Rauvolfia flexuosa'' Ruiz & Pav. = '' Citharexylum flexuosum'' (Ruiz & Pav.) D.Don # ''Rauvolfia glabra'' Cav. = '' Vallesia glabra'' (Cav.) Link # ''Rauvolfia laevigata'' Willd. ex Roem. & Schult. = '' Tabernaemontana amygdalifolia'' Jacq. # ''Rauvolfia longifolia'' A.DC. = '' Alstonia longifolia'' (A.DC.) Pichon # ''Rauvolfia macrophylla'' Ruiz & Pav. 1799 not Stapf 1894 = '' Citharexylum flexuosum'' (Ruiz & Pav.) D.Don # ''Rauvolfia oppositifolia'' Spreng. 1822 not Sessé & Moc. 1888 = '' Tabernaemontana oppositifolia'' (Spreng.) Urb. # ''Rauvolfia pubescens'' Willd. ex Roem. & Schult. = '' Citharexylum quitense'' Spreng. # ''Rauvolfia spinosa'' Cav. = '' Citharexylum flexuosum'' (Ruiz & Pav.) D.Don # ''Rauvolfia stenophylla'' Donn.Sm. = '' Alstonia longifolia'' (A.DC.) Pichon # ''Rauvolfia strempelioides'' Griseb. = '' Strempeliopsis strempelioides'' (Griseb.) Benth. ex B.D.Jacks. # ''Rauvolfia striata'' Poir. = '' Ochrosia borbonica'' J.F.Gmel.

References

Bibliography

* {{Authority control Medicinal plants Apocynaceae genera