BobinsanaCalliandra angustifolia

Did you know?

• Bobinsana is a cousin of the garden shrubs known as red powder puff and pink powder puff (Calliandra haematocephala and C. surinamensis), and like theirs, its flower heads are fluffy balls of long stamens^{[2, 10]}.

• It is a riverbank plant. Herbarium collectors record it at the edges of rivers and streams, and in Ecuador one of its names is chipero de río, "chipero of the river"^[2].

• The travel journals of Richard Spruce, who named bobinsana, cover rivers such as the Huallaga and Pastaza in Peru and Ecuador. They were published in 1908, edited by the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace^{[5, 8]}.

• Bobinsana has worn several scientific names. Calliandra subnervosa, C. sodiroi and C. stricta are all now counted as the same species^[1].

• Chemists have found unusual amino acids called pipecolic acids in bobinsana leaves, and related compounds in the leaves of other Calliandra species^{[6, 7]}.

• In Ecuador its branches are used as brooms, and its leaves are worn as body ornaments^[2].

Origins and history

Bobinsana is a shrub or small tree of the mimosa group of legumes, recorded by collectors at up to about 6 meters (20 feet)^{[1, 2, 9]}. Herbarium collectors describe white flowers crowned with long red to fuchsia stamens, which give each flower head the look of a powder puff^[2]. It grows along rivers and streams on the western side of the Amazon basin, from lowland riverbanks into the Andean foothills, in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and the far west of Brazil^{[1, 2]}.

The plant entered the scientific record through Richard Spruce, the English botanist who spent fifteen years, from 1849 to 1864, exploring the Amazon, its tributaries and the eastern slopes of the Andes in Peru and Ecuador^{[5, 8]}. Spruce coined the name Calliandra angustifolia, and the botanist George Bentham published it in 1875 in the Transactions of the Linnean Society of London^[1].

In Peru the plant is known as bobinsana^{[2, 3]}. There it holds a special place in the plant traditions of the Amazon: local plant specialists count it among their "diet plants", and credit each of these plants with a teaching of its own^[3]. Diet plants are taken during a dieta, a traditional retreat of seclusion and a restricted diet that these specialists regard as one of the deepest parts of their practice^{[3, 4]}. Its bark and root are both used in local tradition^[2].

Traditional uses

Bobinsana's traditions belong to the plant specialists of the western Amazon, who prepare its bark and root in several ways^[2].

• A diet plant

  In the Peruvian Amazon, bobinsana is one of the plants taken during a dieta, the traditional retreat of seclusion and a restricted diet, and plant specialists credit it with a teaching of its own.^{[3, 4]}

• Bark and root preparations

  The bark and root are traditionally simmered into a decoction, and the stem is soaked in liquid.^[2]

• Joint comfort

  One of bobinsana's traditional uses in Peru centers on the joints and muscles. Bobinsana supports joint comfort.*^[3]

• A calm mood

  Peruvian plant specialists describe bobinsana as calming. Bobinsana supports a calm, balanced mood.*^[3]

• Circulation

  In Ecuador, the bark is a traditional preparation for the circulation. Bobinsana supports healthy circulation.*^[2]

Plant compounds

Bobinsana's best-studied plant compounds are pipecolic acids, unusual amino acids that plants do not use to build proteins. Chemists studying the Calliandra genus isolated pipecolic acids, including a dihydroxypipecolic acid, from bobinsana leaves, and found compounds of this kind in the leaves of other Calliandra species as well^{[6, 7]}.