Specimen image via iDigBio
Glossostemon
Sign in to saveGlossostemon is a genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae. It includes a single species, Glossostemon bruguieri, synonym Dombeya arabica, a shrub with thick long tapering dark colored roots with 70–100 cm in length and 5–8 cm in breadth. It is native to Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Morocco. The dried peeled roots of G. bruguieri are called in Egypt and Arab countries ( ). The roots are commonly used in traditional medicine for many nutritional and medicinal values.
Species
GENUS
- KingdomPlantae
- PhylumTracheophyta
- ClassMagnoliopsida
- OrderMalvales
- FamilyMalvaceae
via GBIF · Kew POWO
~3 min read
Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Chemical composition
- Use
- Health and biological effect
- Others
- References
Glossostemon is a genus of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae. It includes a single species, Glossostemon bruguieri, synonym Dombeya arabica, a shrub with thick long tapering dark colored roots with 70–100 cm in length and 5–8 cm in breadth. It is native to Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Morocco. The dried peeled roots of G. bruguieri are called in Egypt and Arab countries ( ). The roots are commonly used in traditional medicine for many nutritional and medicinal values.
==Chemical composition== Starch is the main component of the dried peeled roots with 54.5–62.4% (differs according to the climatic region of cultivation) while protein represents 4.5–8.3%, half of which is aspartic acid. Roots contain high amounts of non-starch polysaccharides including dietary fibers, pectin and up to 27% of mucilage.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Glossostemon” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.