Karwinskia humboldtiana

A number of plant extracts and compounds have potent antimycobacterial properties. Examples of the species that appear to be among the most active include Allium sativum, Borrichia frutescens, Ferula communis, Heracleum maximum, Karwinskia humboldtiana, Leucas volkensii, Moneses uniflora, Oplopanax horridus, Salvia multicaulis, and Strobilanthus cusia. (Newton et al 2000). 

Martinez, H.R., Bermudez, M.V., Rangel-Guerra, R.A. and de Leon Flores, L. (1998) Clinical diagnosis in Karwinskia humboldtiana polyneuropathy. J. Neurol. Sci. 154, 49-54. 

ABSTRACT The genus Karwinskia is included in the order Rhamnaceae and comprises 15 different species of trees and shrubs whose habitat goes from the south part of the U.S.A., all Mexico, Central America, North of Colombia, Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. So far in Mexico 11 of these species have been reported most of them, as toxic plants. Karwinskia humboldtiana is the most widespread species. The ingestion of its fruits in humans produces a flaccid paralysis similar to the Guillain-Barre syndrome and poliomyelitis. 

Using HPLC to examine several samples of tullidinol isolated previously from fruits of Karwinskia humboldtiana, it was possible to verify that all of them consisted of four compounds, as seen in Fig. (10) two of them correspond to the tullidinols Bj and B2 isolated from roots of Karwinskia parvifolia the other two (Rt 4.37 and 4.86) are not pure... 

The prevailing clinical picture for poisoning by Karwinskia humboldtiana is a flaccid and ascending, bilateral and symmetrical paralysis with tendinous hyporeflexia that appears first in the lower limbs, then in the upper limbs, and finally in the respiratory muscles as... 

Weller, R. Mitchell, J. Daves, G.D. In Buckthorn (Karwinskia humboldtiana) toxins-, Spencer P Schaumburg, H Williams-and Wilkins Baltimore, 1980 336-340... 

In Mexico, there is a total of 11 different species of Karwinskia (K. calderonii, K. humboldtiana, K. johnstonii, K. latifolia, K. mollis, K. parvifolia, K. rzedowskii, K. subcordata, K. tehuacana, K. umbellata, and K. venturae). The most common one is K. humboldtiana (Fig. 1), which can be found throughout the country and even beyond its borders as far north as the states of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California in U.S.A.and as far south as Central America [1,2,3]. The other species of... 

The epidemiology of poisoning from Karwinskia is linked to the geographical distribution of K. humboldtiana although there is also a report on poisoning from a Karwinskia species other than humboldtiana [7]. 

From semipolar extracts obtained from the fruit of Karwinskia tehuacana (previously known as Karwinskia qffin humboldtiana), Rivas et al. obtained a compound (13) identified as anhydroperoxisomicine-quinone-A, or T510 [33,5]. This substance may have been formed by oxidation of peroxisomicines however, when over 50 specimens of... 

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