''Ptychopetalum'' is a genus of

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s in the family

Olacaceae Olacaceae is a family of flowering plants in the order Santalales. They are woody plants, native throughout the tropical regions of the world. , the circumscription of the family varies; some sources maintain a broad family, others split it int ...

, native to the

Amazon rainforest The Amazon rainforest, also called the Amazon jungle or Amazonia, is a Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, moist broadleaf tropical rainforest in the Amazon biome that covers most of the Amazon basin of South America. This basin ...

. Indigenous name for the genus include marapuama, muirapuama and mirantã, translating roughly to 'potency wood'. The species are shrubs or small trees growing to about in height. Its leaves are short- petioled, up to in length and in breadth light green on upper surface, dark brown on lower surface. The

inflorescence In botany, an inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a plant's Plant stem, stem that is composed of a main branch or a system of branches. An inflorescence is categorized on the basis of the arrangement of flowers on a mai ...

s consist of short axillary

raceme A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...

s of four to six flowers each. The root is strongly tough and fibrous, internally light brown with thin bark and broad wood, has a faint odor, and tastes slightly saline and acrid.

Species

* '' Ptychopetalum anceps'' Oliv. * '' Ptychopetalum olacoides'' Benth. * '' Ptychopetalum petiolatum'' Oliv. * '' Ptychopetalum uncinatum'' Anselmino

Uses

''Ptychopetalum olacoides'' has been studied for treatment of dark pigmentation around the eyes. The root and bark are used for a variety of ailments by indigenous peoples in the Rio Negro area of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

; on the other hand, Western society is mostly unfamiliar with this medicine and has not invested much in exploring its potential usefulness using the scientific method.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q7257163 Olacaceae Medicinal plants Santalales genera