JurubebaSolanum paniculatum

Did you know?

• The name jurubeba comes from Tupi, an Indigenous language of Brazil^[6].

• Jurubeba belongs to the same genus, Solanum, as the potato, the tomato and the eggplant^{[1, 11]}.

• Linnaeus based his 1762 name on a plant recorded from Brazil by Willem Piso in 1658^{[2, 3]}.

• Botanists described jurubeba again and again under new names, and Kew now lists 16 of them as synonyms^[1].

• In Brazil the small, bitter fruits are pickled and eaten as a condiment^[4].

• Brazil's Ministry of Health lists jurubeba among the 71 plants on RENISUS, its list of plants of interest to the public health system^[8].

• In Bahia, a table wine flavored with jurubeba, Jurubeba Leão do Norte, has been made since the 1920s^[10].

Origins and history

Jurubeba is a plant of open, sunny ground. It springs up on roadsides, bare land and worn-out pastures, and in disturbed forest and savanna^{[5, 7]}. It is common in almost all of Brazil, especially in the Cerrado savanna^{[1, 4, 5, 7, 12]}. Its stems carry small prickles^[7], and its fruits are small, round berries, pale green or whitish when ripe^[4].

Europeans knew the plant early. When Linnaeus named Solanum paniculatum in 1762, in the second edition of his Species Plantarum, he based the name on a plant that Willem Piso had recorded from Brazil in a natural history published in 1658. Linnaeus gave its home simply as Brazil^{[2, 3]}. Its common name, jurubeba, comes from Tupi, a language spoken by Indigenous peoples of Brazil^[6], and in different parts of Brazil it is also called jubeba, juripeba or jurubebinha^[13]. The name jurubeba is shared with a close relative, Solanum guaraniticum, sometimes called false jurubeba, but the Brazilian Pharmacopoeia recognizes only Solanum paniculatum as the true jurubeba^[9]. In 2009, Brazil's Ministry of Health placed Solanum paniculatum on RENISUS, its list of 71 plants of interest to the national public health system^[8].

Jurubeba also has a place in Brazilian food and drink. The fruit is used as a seasoning and preserved as pickles, above all in the states of Goiás and Minas Gerais^[4]. It is also steeped in cachaça, Brazil's sugarcane spirit, to make a bitter drink^[4]. In Bahia, it flavors a traditional table wine, Jurubeba Leão do Norte, which has been made there since the 1920s^[10].

Traditional uses

Clinical studies of jurubeba in people are still few, but its traditional use across Brazil is rich and widespread, in the kitchen as well as in folk tradition^{[4, 5, 9]}.

• A bitter tonic

  Across Brazil, bitter jurubeba has traditionally been used for digestive comfort.*^{[4, 5]}

• Healthy digestion

  Jurubeba supports healthy digestion.*^{[4, 5]}

• Liver function

  Jurubeba supports healthy liver function.*^{[4, 5, 9]}

Plant compounds

Jurubeba contains steroidal alkaloids and steroidal glycoalkaloids, together with steroidal saponins, terpenes and phenylpropanoids^{[4, 5]}.