''Ardisia elliptica'' is an evergreen tree, also known as the shoebutton ardisia, duck's eye and coralberry, native to the west coast of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia (historically known as Indochina and the Indochinese Peninsula) is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to th ...

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

and

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. It is a prolific reproducer which has made it a successful invasive species in other locations in the tropics where it has been introduced as a garden ornamental.

Description

''Ardisia elliptica'' is a tropical understory shrub that can reach heights of up 5 meters. Undamaged plants in forest habitats are characterized by a single stem, producing short, perpendicular branches. Leaves are elliptic to elliptic-obovate, entire, leathery and alternate. Umbellate inflorescences develop in leaf axils of branch leaves. Petals are light pink. Fruits are drupes that first turn red as they mature and then deep purple / black. Pulp staining fingers a deep purple. Seeds are approximately spherical with a diameter of about 5 mm.

Status

'' Ardisia solanacea'' and '' Ardisia humilis'' are considered to be included in the single variable species ''Ardisia elliptica'' by some botanists.

Invasive species

It is grown in gardens as an ornamental and has become an invasive species in

Puerto Rico ; abbreviated PR), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, is a Government of Puerto Rico, self-governing Caribbean Geography of Puerto Rico, archipelago and island organized as an Territories of the United States, unincorporated territo ...

, tropical Australia (

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

, Northern Territory), Southern

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in the US,

the Caribbean The Caribbean ( , ; ; ; ) is a region in the middle of the Americas centered around the Caribbean Sea in the North Atlantic Ocean, mostly overlapping with the West Indies. Bordered by North America to the north, Central America to the west, a ...

, the Mascarene Islands, the Seychelles, and on several Pacific islands such as

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 ...

. Given ideal conditions, individuals can reach reproductive maturity in 2–4 years in the field and 1–2 years in a shade house. Large adults in bright forested sites have been measured producing up to 400 fruits. However, adults can also successfully set

fruit In botany, a fruit is the seed-bearing structure in flowering plants (angiosperms) that is formed from the ovary after flowering. Fruits are the means by which angiosperms disseminate their seeds. Edible fruits in particular have long propaga ...

under shady conditions.

Seed In botany, a seed is a plant structure containing an embryo and stored nutrients in a protective coat called a ''testa''. More generally, the term "seed" means anything that can be Sowing, sown, which may include seed and husk or tuber. Seeds ...

s do not have any long-term dormancy (i.e., greater than 6 months), however, seedlings and juveniles can survive under very shady conditions for many years. Given enough light, juveniles rapidly develop into reproductive adults. Its fruit is readily consumed by both avian and mammalian

frugivore A frugivore ( ) is an animal that thrives mostly on raw fruits or succulent fruit-like produce of plants such as roots, shoots, nuts and seeds. Approximately 20% of mammalian herbivores eat fruit. Frugivores are highly dependent on the abundance ...

s and rapid spread across a landscape is possible.

Phytoconstituents

The benzoquinone rapanone, the terpenoids bauerenol and

amyrin The amyrins are three closely related natural chemical compounds of the triterpene class. They are designated α-amyrin (ursane skeleton), β-amyrin (oleanane skeleton), and δ-amyrin. Each is a pentacyclic triterpenol with the chemical formula ...

, and the phenolic compounds

syringic acid Syringic acid is a naturally occurring phenolic compound and dimethoxybenzene that is commonly found as a plant metabolite. Natural occurrence Syringic acid can be found in several plants including '' Ardisia elliptica'' and ''Schumannianthus ...

, isorhamnetin,

quercetin Quercetin is a plant flavonol from the flavonoid group of polyphenols. It is found in many fruits, vegetables, leaves, seeds, and grains; capers, red onions, and kale are common foods containing appreciable amounts of it. It has a bitter flavor ...

, bergenin, 5-(Z-heptadec-4'-enyl)resorcinol and 5-pentadecylresorcinol can be found in ''A. elliptica''.

Pharmacology

Antiplatelet and Antibacterial.

Ethnopharmacology

In Malaysia, a decoction of leaves is said to assuage retrosternal pains, and a paste made from the leaves is used to treat

herpes Herpes simplex, often known simply as herpes, is a viral infection caused by the herpes simplex virus. Herpes infections are categorized by the area of the body that is infected. The two major types of herpes are oral herpes and genital herp ...

and

measles Measles (probably from Middle Dutch or Middle High German ''masel(e)'', meaning "blemish, blood blister") is a highly contagious, Vaccine-preventable diseases, vaccine-preventable infectious disease caused by Measles morbillivirus, measles v ...

. In Thai traditional medicine, the fruits are used to cure

diarrhoea Diarrhea (American English), also spelled diarrhoea or diarrhœa (British English), is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements in a day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration d ...

with fever. In Southeast Asia leaves are used to treat

scabies Scabies (; also sometimes known as the seven-year itch) is a contagious human skin infestation by the tiny (0.2–0.45 mm) mite ''Sarcoptes scabiei'', variety ''hominis''. The word is from . The most common symptoms are severe itchiness a ...

, and fruit for intestinal worms.Giesen, Wulffraat, Zieren, and Scholten. "Mangrove Guidebook for Southeast Asia", p. 671. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Wetlands International, 2006.
https://web.archive.org/ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ag132e/ag132e10.pdf
/ref>

References

Wiart, Christophe. "Medicinal Plants of Asia and the Pacific", p. 56. CRC Press 2006, . Preview available at

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical charac ...

. Koh Hwee Ling, Chua Tung Kian, and Tan Chay Hoon. "A Guide to Medicinal Plants: An Illustrated, Scientific and Medicinal Approach", p. 14. World Scientific Publishing 2009, . Preview available at

. Giesen, Wulffraat, Zieren, and Scholten. "Mangrove Guidebook for Southeast Asia", p. 671. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and Wetlands International, 2006.
https://web.archive.org/ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/ag132e/ag132e10.pdf
/references>

External links

{{Commons * Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG)
Ardisia elliptica
elliptica