BotranicAL MuseEUM LEAFLETS vot. 25, No. 10 
DecemBer, 1977 
BRUNFELSIA IN ETHNOMEDICINE* 
Timothy Plowman** 
The genus Brunfelsia belongs to the alkaloid-rich family 
Solanaceae and usually is placed in the relatively advanced 
tribe Salpiglossideae. Brunfelsia is a medium-sized genus of 
about 42 species of small trees and shrubs: 22 species are 
confined to the West Indies; 20 species are found in tropical 
South America. 
Various species from South America have long been recog- 
nized by native peoples for their medicinal properties. Some of 
these plants are cultivated for use as household remedies with 
specific therapeutic effects. These effects have apparently 
been discovered independently by unrelated peoples in widely 
separated parts of the continent. Yet chemically and phar- 
macologically, species of Brunfelsia are still virtually unknown 
—a disturbing fact considering the many important drug plants 
in the Solanaceae which are commonly used in pharmacy to- 
day. 
At least five species of Brunfelsia are known to be of some 
medicinal importance. Other species of the genus are sus- 
pected of having pharmacological activity or of possessing 
alkaloids or other active constituents. My purpose in this ac- 
count is to review the literature on these plants and to present 
pertinent ethnobotanical data collected during my own field 
work and that of other workers, in order to rekindle the interest 
of chemists and medical researchers in this pharmacologically 
rich genus. 
1. Brunfelsia uniflora (Pohl) D. Don 
The most important medicinal species of Brunfelsia is B. 
uniflora, the well known manacd root of the Brazilian phar- 
* Based in part upon ‘‘The South American Species of Brunfelsia (Solanaceae)’’, a 
doctoral dissertation presented at Harvard University, December, 1973. 
** Present address: Botanical Museum of Harvard University, Oxford Street, Cam- 
bridge, Massachusetts 02138, U.S.A. 
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