''Senegalia berlandieri'' (Berlandier acacia, guajillo acacia, guajillo, huajillo, huajilla) is a

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

native to the

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural list of regions of the United States, region of the United States that includes Arizona and New Mexico, along with adjacen ...

and northeast

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

that belongs to the Mimosoid clade of

Fabaceae Fabaceae () or Leguminosae,International Code of Nomen ...

. It grows tall, with

blossom In botany, blossoms are the flowers of stone fruit trees (genus ''Prunus'') and of some other plants with a similar appearance that flower profusely for a period of time in spring. Colloquially, flowers of orange are referred to as such as w ...

s that are spherical and white, occurring from February through April.University of Texas Native Plant Information Network
/ref> The ''berlandieri'' epithet comes from the name of

Jean-Louis Berlandier Jean-Louis Berlandier (1803 – 1851) was a French-Mexican natural history, naturalist, physician, and anthropologist. Early life Berlandier was born in Geneva, and later trained as a Botany, botanist there. During this time he probably served a ...

, a French

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

who studied

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animals and uncultivated plant species which can exist in their natural habitat, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introdu ...

native to

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

and

. ''S. berlandieri'' contains a wide variety of

alkaloid Alkaloids are a broad class of natural product, naturally occurring organic compounds that contain at least one nitrogen atom. Some synthetic compounds of similar structure may also be termed alkaloids. Alkaloids are produced by a large varie ...

s and has been known to cause

toxic Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subst ...

reactions in

domestic animal This page gives a list of domesticated animals, also including a list of animals which are or may be currently undergoing the process of domestication and animals that have an extensive relationship with humans beyond simple predation. This includ ...

s such as

goats The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a species of goat-antelope that is mostly kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the famil ...

.B.A. Clement, C. M. Goff and T. D. A. Forbes (1997). "Toxic amines and alkaloids from ''Acacia berlandieri''." ''Phytochemistry'' 46 249-254.

Uses

''Senegalia berlandieri'' is toxic to

livestock Livestock are the Domestication, domesticated animals that are raised in an Agriculture, agricultural setting to provide labour and produce diversified products for consumption such as meat, Egg as food, eggs, milk, fur, leather, and wool. The t ...

and thus should not be used as

forage Forage is a plant material (mainly plant leaves and stems) eaten by grazing livestock. Historically, the term ''forage'' has meant only plants eaten by the animals directly as pasture, crop residue, or immature cereal crops, but it is also used m ...

fodder Fodder (), also called provender (), is any agriculture, agricultural foodstuff used specifically to feed domesticated livestock, such as cattle, domestic rabbit, rabbits, sheep, horses, chickens and pigs. "Fodder" refers particularly to food ...

Alkaloids

''Senegalia berlandieri'' contains a diverse range of

s, the most plentiful of which are ''N''-methylphenethylamine,

tyramine Tyramine ( ) (also spelled tyramin), also known under several other names, is a naturally occurring trace amine derived from the amino acid tyrosine. Tyramine acts as a catecholamine releasing agent. Notably, it is unable to cross the bl ...

, and

phenethylamine Phenethylamine (PEA) is an organic compound, natural monoamine alkaloid, and trace amine, which acts as a central nervous system stimulant in humans. In the brain, phenethylamine regulates monoamine neurotransmission by binding to trace ami ...

. The total alkaloid content in dried leaves has been reported to be in the range 0.28-0.66%. Four phenolic amines ( N-methyl-β-phenethylamine,

, N-methyltyramine, and hordenine) have been detected. Other trace alkaloids include

nicotine Nicotine is a natural product, naturally produced alkaloid in the nightshade family of plants (most predominantly in tobacco and ''Duboisia hopwoodii'') and is widely used recreational drug use, recreationally as a stimulant and anxiolytic. As ...

and

mescaline Mescaline, also known as mescalin or mezcalin, and in chemical terms 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, is a natural product, naturally occurring psychedelic drug, psychedelic alkaloid, protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, found ...

(the latter of which is found in many

cacti A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

but infrequently in other plants). The same group of researchers later reported finding most of the same alkaloids in '' Acacia rigidula'', a related species also native to the Southwestern U.S. However, their findings have not been corroborated by other research, leading to the suggestion that they may have resulted from cross-contamination or simply been artifacts of the researchers' analytical technique.

Illicit use in supplements

After the

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

declared that the use of Acacia rigdula was unlawful in supplements (because of frequent adulteration with synthetic drugs), many supplement sellers began replacing previously reported 'rigdula' containing supplements with 'Acacia berlandieri'. Some of these products declare their Acacia extracts as containing Methylsynephrine, an entirely synthetic drug that has never been found in nature.

Gallery

File:Acacia-berlandieri-flowers.jpg, ''Senegalia berlandieri'' foliage and flowers File:Acacia-berlandieri-habit.jpg, ''Senegalia berlandieri'' tree File:Acacia-berlandieri-bark.jpg, ''Senegalia berlandieri'' bark File:Acacia-berlandieri-pods.jpg, ''Senegalia berlandieri'' flowers and seed pods File:Acacia berlandieri seeds.jpg, ''Senegalia berlandieri'' seeds

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q965323 berlandieri Flora of Texas Flora of the Chihuahuan Desert Flora of the Mexican Plateau Shrubs Trees of Northern America Garden plants of North America Drought-tolerant plants