''Breynia vitis-idaea'', the officinal breynia, is a perennial tree-like species of

Phyllanthaceae Phyllanthaceae is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the eudicot Order (biology), order Malpighiales. It is most closely related to the family Picrodendraceae.Kenneth J. Wurdack and Charles C. Davis. 2009. "Malpighiales phylogeneti ...

(

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

s.l.), found from

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 ...

east to

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

and

Okinawa most commonly refers to: * Okinawa Prefecture, Japan's southernmost prefecture * Okinawa Island, the largest island of Okinawa Prefecture * Okinawa Islands, an island group including Okinawa itself * Okinawa (city), the second largest city in th ...

and south to

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, ...

. It is a shrub or treelet with egg-shaped leaves that can reach up to 3 m tall. It has staminate flowers and spherical, red fruit. ''Breynia vitis-idaea'' is pollinated by the leafflower moth '' Epicephala vitisidaea'' in

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

and the Ryukyu Archipelago,

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The moth actively pollinates the flowers, but lays an egg into the space between the external carpel wall and the tepals. The moth caterpillars consume a subset of the tree's seeds, receiving nourishment in return. It contains the

saponin Saponins (Latin ''sapon'', 'soap' + ''-in'', 'one of') are bitter-tasting, usually toxic plant-derived secondary metabolites. They are organic chemicals that become foamy when agitated in water and have high molecular weight. They are present ...

breynin and terpenic and

phenol Phenol (also known as carbolic acid, phenolic acid, or benzenol) is an aromatic organic compound with the molecular formula . It is a white crystalline solid that is volatile and can catch fire. The molecule consists of a phenyl group () ...

glycoside In chemistry, a glycoside is a molecule in which a sugar is bound to another functional group via a glycosidic bond. Glycosides play numerous important roles in living organisms. Many plants store chemicals in the form of inactive glycosides. ...

s. It is marketed in Taiwan as Chi R Yun.

Toxicity

''Breynia vitis-idaea'' poisoning causes hepatocellular liver injury.

Other names

''Breynia officinalis'' Hemsley and ''B. officinalis'' var. ''accrescens'' ( Hayata) M.J.Deng & J.C.Wang are synonyms of ''B. vitis-idaea''. Other variants include: *''Breynia formosana'' (Hayata) Hayata *''Breynia officinalis'' Hemsley var. ''officinalis'' *''Breynia stipitata'' Muell. -Arg. var. ''formosana'' Hayata *''Breynia stipitata'' Muell. -Arg. var. ''formosana'' Hayata Other common names in English include: *Formosan breynia *Large calyx breynia *Medicinal breynia Common names in other languages include: * * ', ', ' * zh, c=七日暈, p=, l=7-day dizziness * * * * * * ('; ), ดับพิษ ('; ) (northern), ก้างปลาทะเล ('; ), ผักหวานตัวผู้ ('; ) (central)ค้นหาข้อมูลพืช
*

References

External links

Photograph of ''B. officinalis'' Hemsl.
vitisidaea Flora of Asia Plants described in 1768 Plants used in traditional Chinese medicine Taxa named by Nicolaas Laurens Burman {{Phyllanthaceae-stub