MulunguErythrina mulungu

Did you know?

• In Brazil, mulungu is a shared name: it is used for several coral trees, all with red or orange flowers^{[5, 7]}.

• The genus name Erythrina comes from the Greek erythros, "red", and in English mulungu is called coral tree, after its reddish flowers^{[3, 9]}.

• Coral-tree flowers are made for birds. In the Americas, hummingbirds are among the birds that visit them for nectar^{[4, 8]}.

• Mulungu's close relative Erythrina verna is planted as a shade tree on cocoa farms^[4].

• Mulungu bark had its own entry in Brazil's first national pharmacopoeia, in 1926, which describes the tincture as brownish, with a faintly bitter taste^[11].

• Flora Brasiliensis, where mulungu was first described, was published between 1840 and 1906 and covers 22,767 species in 15 volumes^[6].

Origins and history

Mulungu is a medium-sized tree that can reach about 50 feet (15 m)^[4]. It belongs to Erythrina, a genus of tropical trees and shrubs with mostly reddish flowers, many of them grown in gardens^[9]. Its trunk is armed with spines and wrapped in a thick layer of corky bark, and like many members of the pea family it enriches the soil by fixing nitrogen from the air^[4]. Its home range runs from Bolivia across central and southern Brazil to Paraguay and northern Argentina^{[1, 2]}.

The name Erythrina mulungu was coined by Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius, one of the editors of Flora Brasiliensis, and published there by the botanist George Bentham in 1859^{[1, 2, 6]}. Botanists do not all agree on where mulungu ends and its close relative Erythrina verna begins. Kew's Plants of the World Online keeps them as two species, with E. verna named earlier, in 1829. Several other plant databases, and Brazil's Ministry of Health, list E. mulungu as just another name for E. verna^{[1, 2, 4, 11]}. The two trees are much alike, both are called mulungu in Brazil, and studies of the plant use both names^{[2, 3, 4]}.

In Brazil, mulungu is a calming herb of long standing. The bark, and sometimes the leaves, are simmered in water to make a decoction, a strong tea, or steeped in alcohol to make a tincture^{[3, 11]}. The bark had an official entry in the first Brazilian Pharmacopoeia in 1926, and in 2010 Brazil's health regulator listed the bark decoction as a gentle calming tea^[11]. That reputation has drawn Brazilian scientists to the tree, and they have isolated several of its alkaloids^{[3, 10, 11]}.

Traditional uses

Clinical studies of mulungu in people are still few, but its traditional use is rich and consistent: in Brazil, mulungu is the bark people turn to for calm^{[3, 11]}.

• A calming bark tea

  The bark is traditionally simmered into a tea or made into a tincture and taken as a gentle calming herb.^{[3, 11]}

• Relaxation

  Mulungu helps you relax.*^{[3, 11]}

• A calm, balanced mood

  Mulungu supports a calm, balanced mood.*^[3]

• Restful nights

  In Brazil, mulungu has traditionally been taken for restful sleep. For occasional sleeplessness.*^{[3, 11]}

Plant compounds

Mulungu's best-known plant compounds are its alkaloids, known as erythrinian alkaloids after the genus Erythrina^{[3, 10]}. Those isolated from its flowers include erythravine, 11α-hydroxy-erythravine and 11α-hydroxy-erysotrine^{[3, 10, 11]}.