SimaroubaSimarouba amara

Did you know?

• In English it is bitterwood or paradise tree; in Brazil, marupá; in French, bois blanc, "white wood", after its pale timber^[3].

• The bark has no smell at all, but a strongly bitter taste^{[5, 6]}.

• Simarouba belongs to the quassia family, the same plant family as the tree of heaven, Ailanthus^{[7, 8]}.

• The bark was trading across the Atlantic early: it was first shipped from Guiana to France in 1713^[4].

• Simarouba trees are either male or female. The female trees bear clusters of small, fleshy fruits, green ripening to purplish-black, that birds and monkeys eat^[12].

• Its pale wood is used for furniture and cabinetwork^{[3, 9]}.

Origins and history

Simarouba is a tall tree of the wet tropical forest, growing to 35 meters (about 115 feet)^{[1, 6, 12]}. Birds and monkeys eat its small, fleshy fruits and carry the seeds through the forest^[12]. Its range is wide, running from Mexico and the Caribbean islands through Central America to the Amazon and the Guianas^{[1, 2]}. Its family, Simaroubaceae, is a group of about 20 to 25 genera found mainly in the tropics worldwide, and like most of its members, simarouba has a bitter bark^{[5, 7, 8]}.

The bark reached Europe early: it was first shipped from Guiana to France in 1713^[4]. The tree itself was formally named Simarouba amara in 1775, in Aublet's Histoire des plantes de la Guiane françoise, a flora of French Guiana^{[1, 2]}. Its root bark, from trees native to the Guianas and the Caribbean islands, became an article of commerce in Britain and the United States. The British Pharmaceutical Codex of 1911 noted that the simaruba bark "in commerce" came from Simarouba amara, and the Dispensatory of the United States of America still described it in 1918^{[5, 6]}. Both books describe the same bark: long, fibrous, yellowish strips with no smell and a bitter taste^{[5, 6]}.

Several of the tree's names reflect two of its features, its bitterness and its pale wood: English speakers call it bitterwood, and French speakers bois blanc, "white wood"^[3]. In Brazil it is marupá^[3]. The timber is cut for furniture and cabinetwork^[9].

Traditional uses

Clinical studies of simarouba in people are still few, but its bitter bark has a long history of traditional use, both in its native forests and in the pharmacy traditions of Europe and North America^{[4, 5, 6, 9]}.

• A bitter tonic

  British and American pharmacy references and herbals of the early 1900s recorded the root bark as a bitter and a tonic. As a traditional bitter tonic, simarouba supports healthy digestion.*^{[4, 5, 6]}

• Intestinal balance

  Pharmacy texts and herbals of the early 1900s record a long tradition of using the bark for intestinal wellbeing. Simarouba helps maintain healthy intestinal flora.*^{[4, 5]}

• A bitter bark tea

  The bark has traditionally been steeped or simmered in water to make a very bitter tea.^{[5, 6, 9]}

Plant compounds

Simarouba's bitterness comes from quassinoids, a group of bitter plant compounds that researchers have isolated from the tree^{[10, 11]}. They include glaucarubinone and several related compounds^{[10, 11]}. Pharmacy texts of the early 1900s already described a "bitter principle" in the bark, long before these compounds had names^{[5, 6]}.