Lonchocarpus

''Lonchocarpus'' is a plant genus in the legume family (Fabaceae). It includes 166 species native to the tropical Americas, tropical Africa, and Madasgascar. The species are called lancepods due to their fruit resembling an ornate lance tip or a few beads on a string.

''Cubé'' resin is produced from the roots of '' L. urucu'' and namely ' L. utilis'' (''cubé''). It contains enough of the toxic rotenoids rotenone and deguelin to be used as an insecticide and piscicide. As these are naturally occurring compounds, they were formerly used in organic farming. Since it is highly unselective and kills useful, as well as pest, animals, it is considered harmful to the environment today. Also, chronic exposure to rotenone and deguelin appears to increase the risk of Parkinson's disease, even in mammals, for which these compounds are less immediately toxic than for fish and insects. Deguelin might be useful in cancer therapy if it can be applied directly into tumors, and ''Lonchocarpus'' root is used to a probably insignificant extent by indigenous peoples as an aid in fish stunning, e.g. by the Nukak who call it ''nuún''.

The bark of '' L. violaceus'' (''balché'' tree) is traditionally used by the Yukatek Maya version of the mildly intoxicating mead, ''balché'', which was held in the highest esteem in antiquity and considered sacred to the god of intoxication. It is still drunk today and was, after the Spanish conquest of Yucatán, considered a less harmful alternative to the alcoholic beverages imported by the Europeans. It is not quite clear if roots were also used to produce ''balché'', and to what extent toxic isoflavones are also present in ''L. violaceus''. The potency of ''balché'' may be increased by using honey produced from ''L. violaceus'' nectar foraged by the Maya people's traditional stingless bees.

Certain insects have evolved the ability to deal with ''Lonchocarpus'' toxins and feed on these plants. They include a possible new Lepidopteran taxon in the two-barred flasher (''Astraptes fulgerator'') cryptic species complex which seems to have acquired this trait only quite recently in its evolutionary history and is known to be found on '' L. costaricensis'' and '' L. oliganthus''.

The type species is '' Lonchocarpus sericeus''.

Species

Selected species include:
* '' Lonchocarpus calcaratus''
* '' Lonchocarpus chiricanus''
* '' Lonchocarpus minimiflorus''
* '' Lonchocarpus molinae''
* '' Lonchocarpus phaseolifolius''
* '' Lonchocarpus phlebophyllus''
* '' Lonchocarpus pluvialis –'' ''cuquí''
* '' Lonchocarpus retifer''
* '' Lonchocarpus salvadorensis''
* '' Lonchocarpus sanctuarii''
* '' Lonchocarpus santarosanus'' – ''chapelno blanco''
* '' Lonchocarpus trifolius''
* '' Lonchocarpus urucu'' – ''barbasco''
* '' Lonchocarpus violaceus''
* '' Lonchocarpus yoroensis''

Footnotes

References

* (2006): Problems with DNA barcodes for species delimitation: ‘ten species’ of ''Astraptes fulgerator'' reassessed (Lepidoptera: Hesperiidae). ''Systematics and Biodiversity'' 4(2): 127–132. PDF fulltext
* (2004): Rotenone, deguelin, their metabolites, and the rat model of Parkinson's disease. '' Chemical Research in Toxicology'' 17(11): 1540–1548. (HTML abstract)
* (2004): Ten species in one: DNA barcoding reveals cryptic species in the semitropical skipper butterfly ''Astraptes fulgerator''. ''PNAS'' 101(41): 14812–14817. PDF fulltextSupporting Appendices
* (1997): Cancer Chemopreventive Activity Mediated by Deguelin, a Naturally Occurring Rotenoid. ''Cancer Research'' 57(16): 3424–3428. PDF fulltext

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Fabaceae genera
Taxa named by Carl Sigismund Kunth
Taxonomy articles created by Polbot