Colubrina Elliptica

Colubrina elliptica, also known as mabi or soldierwood, is a species of flowering tree in the family Rhamnaceae, that is native to the Florida Keys, the Caribbean, Central America, Mexico, and Venezuela. It produces fruit the size of peppercorns, when ripe, the fruits explode, shooting their seeds for several feet away and making explosions sound like rounds of musket fire, hence the name soldierwood. It is also called nakedwood, due to its smooth bark with peels. This tree can grow very large with trunk circumference as large as 33 inches, 47 feet tall, and with tree crown spread 26 feed according to the American Forests Register of Champion Trees. This tree is recognized not only for its size but also the critical ecosystem services that it provides such a food and shelter for wildlife, its water purification abilities, and its role in absorbing CO2 from our atmosphere and storing carbon in its wood. The plant is a saponin containing plant widely distributed in the Caribbean region where its bark is used for the preparation of bitter beverages and in folk medicine for treatment of skin diseases. In recent years, three new bitter saponins, designated mabioside A, B and C, were isolated from the bark of Colubrina Elliptica and were determined to be 3-O-[alpha-JL-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 --> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]-15-O-[beta-D- glucopyranosyl] mabiogenin, 3-O-{alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 --> 6)-[beta-D-glucopyranosyl-(1 --> 2)]-beta-D-glucopyranosyl}mabiogenin and 3-O-[alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1 --> 6)-beta-D-glucopyranosyl]mabiogenin, respectively.