''Colubrina elliptica'', also known as mabi or soldierwood, is a species of

flowering A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...

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, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

in the family

Rhamnaceae The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae ...

, that is native to the

Florida Keys The Florida Keys are a coral island, coral cay archipelago located off the southern coast of Florida, forming the southernmost part of the continental United States. They begin at the southeastern coast of the Florida peninsula, about south of ...

, the Caribbean,

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

, and

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...

. It produces fruit the size of peppercorns, when ripe, the fruits explode, shooting their seeds for several feet away and making explosions sound like rounds of musket fire, hence the name soldierwood. It is also called nakedwood, due to its smooth bark with peels. This tree can grow very large with trunk circumference as large as 33 inches, 47 feet tall, and with tree crown spread 26 feed according to the American Forests Register of Champion Trees. This tree is recognized not only for its size but also the critical

ecosystem services Ecosystem services are the many and varied benefits to humans provided by the natural environment and healthy ecosystems. Such ecosystems include, for example, agroecosystems, forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems ...

that it provides such a food and shelter for wildlife, its water purification abilities, and its role in absorbing from our atmosphere and storing carbon in its wood. The plant is a saponin containing plant widely distributed in the Caribbean region where its bark is used for the preparation of bitter beverages and in folk medicine for treatment of skin diseases. In recent years, three new bitter saponins, designated mabioside A, B and C, were isolated from the bark of Colubrina Elliptica and were determined to be 3-O- lpha-JL-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 --> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl15-O- eta-D- glucopyranosylmabiogenin, 3-O-mabiogenin and 3-O- lpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 --> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranosylabiogenin, respectively.

Uses

Colubrina elliptica is a saponin containing plant widely distributed in the Caribbean region where its bark is used for the preparation of bitter beverages and in folk medicine for treatment of skin diseases.Morton, J. F. (1981) Atlas of Medicinal Plants of Middle America, C. C. Thomas, Illinois. The bark and leaves of mabi are used to create

mauby Mauby (in Trinidad and Tobago, Saint Lucia, Jamaica, St. Vincent and The Grenadines, Grenada, Guyana, Bermuda, Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and Anguilla), also known as ''maví (or mabí)'' in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, ''mabi'' ...

, a drink popular in the Caribbean.

References

elliptica Trees of Mexico Trees of the Caribbean Trees of Central America Trees of Venezuela Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Rhamnaceae-stub