Wednesday, April 8

Clitoria

und jetzt das ganze auf Deutsch:

Clitoria ternatea, auch Blaue Klitorie, Schmetterlings-Erbse oder selten Schamblume (nicht zu verwechseln mit den ebenfalls als Schamblume bezeichneten Arten der Gattung Aeschynanthus), ist eine Art aus der zur Familie der Hülsenfrüchtler gehörenden Gattung Clitoria. Die vielfältig verwendbare Pflanze stammt wohl ursprünglich aus Ostafrika, ist aber mittlerweile in zahlreichen tropischen und subtropischen Ländern eingebürgert.

aus: wikipedia

Thursday, April 2

Clitoria

Clitoria is a genus of flowering plants that are insect pollinated.
These plants are native to tropical and temperate areas of the Old and New World including southeast Asia, where the flowers are often used as a food dye.
In animal tests the methanolic extract of Clitoria ternatea (Butterfly pea) roots demonstrated nootropic, anxiolytic, antidepressant, anticonvulsant and antistress activity. The active constituent(s) include Tannins, resins, Starch, Taraxerol & Taraxerone. Clitoria ternatea root extracts are capable of curing whooping cough if taken orally. The extract from the white-flowered plant can cure goiter. Its roots are used in the ayurveda system of Indian medicine.
This genus was named after the human female clitoris, for the flowers bear a resemblance to female pudenda. Originally the first described species of the genus was given the name Flos clitoridis ternatensibus in 1678 by Rumpf, a German-born botanist employed by the Dutch East India Company. It was regarded as appropriately named by Johann Philipp Breyne in 1747. Many vernacular names of these flowers in different languages are similarly based on references to a woman's sexual organ.

There were controversies in the past among botanists regarding the good taste of the naming of the genus. The analogy drew sharp criticism from botanists like James Edward Smith in 1807, Amos Eaton in 1817, Michel Étienne Descourtilz in 1826 and Eaton and Wright in 1840. Some less explicit alternatives, like Vexillaria (Eaton 1817) and Nauchea (Descourtilz 1826), were proposed, but they didn't prosper and the name Clitoria has survived to this day.