TamamuriBrosimum acutifolium

Did you know?

• In Brazil, tamamuri is known as mururé. The tree has many other local names, among them amapá doce, muirapiranga, congona, urupi and quecho^{[2, 3]}.

• It shares its genus with the breadnut (Brosimum alicastrum), a tree prized for its edible seeds^[8].

• Botanists recognize three subspecies: acutifolium, interjectum and obovatum^{[1, 3]}.

• Its scientific name has moved around. Botanists have placed it in the genera Brosimopsis and Piratinera, but today it is back in Brosimum, where it was first described in 1910^{[1, 3]}.

• Between 2001 and 2005, chemists reported 22 compounds new to science from the tree: six acutifolins, thirteen brosimacutins and three mururins^{[2, 4, 5, 6, 7]}.

• In the Brazilian Amazon the bark is sometimes left to steep in a bottle of cachaça, the country's sugarcane spirit^[2].

Origins and history

Tamamuri is a tree of the Amazon's terra firme rainforest, the forest on higher ground above the reach of the seasonal floods^{[1, 2]}. It grows 15 to 25 meters (about 50 to 80 feet) tall, and a latex can be drawn from a cut in its trunk^[2]. It is found across the Amazon basin, from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru to Bolivia, Brazil and the Guianas^{[1, 2]}.

The species was first described in 1910, in the bulletin of the Goeldi Museum in Pará, in the Brazilian Amazon^{[1, 3]}. It belongs to the genus Brosimum, which also includes the breadnut, Brosimum alicastrum, whose seeds are eaten raw, roasted or boiled^[8].

Traditional uses

In the Brazilian Amazon, where tamamuri is called mururé, the bark has long held a place in folk tradition^[2].

• An Amazonian folk bark

  Communities in northern Brazil and elsewhere in South America have long used mururé bark in their folk practice^[2].

• Bark tea and bark in spirits

  The whole or ground bark is traditionally simmered or steeped in hot water to make a tea, or left to steep for a couple of days in a bottle of cachaça, wine or brandy^[2].

• Joint comfort

  The bark also has a long folk tradition for the joints. Tamamuri supports joint function and comfort.*^[2]

• Antioxidant compounds

  Tamamuri bark provides flavonoids, naturally occurring antioxidant compounds.*^{[2, 9]}

Plant compounds

Tamamuri bark is rich in flavonoids, especially flavans and chalcones^{[2, 9, 10, 11]}. Six compounds named acutifolins, five of them flavans, and thirteen flavonoids named brosimacutins were new to science when they were described^{[2, 4, 5, 7]}. The bark also contains the flavonoid brosimine B^{[2, 12]} and three lignoid compounds called mururins^{[2, 6]}.