Bintangor Tree & HIV
The Bintangor tree, which produces a compound that fights HIV. Sarawak MediChem
Pharmaceuticals replicated the compound in the lab to avoid having to harvest
rainforest trees. Photo: Dr. Doel Saejarto. Courtesy of Sarawak MediChem Pharmaceuticals
The Bintangor (GUTTIFERAE: Calophyllum biflorium) is a building timber, also used for constructing furniture; its fruit is relished by wild boar. The family name “Guttiferae” means “latex bearing”; and the latex of a number of species from this family has medicinal uses. (For example, the species Garcinia hanburyi produces “gamboge”, a yellow pigment which was also used as a strong purgative, and after which the country Cambodia was named) A related Bintangor variety yields a substance that is being evaluated for the treatment of HIV.
Calophyllum ("beautiful leaf", from Greek kalos, "beautiful", and phullon, "leaf") is a plant genus of around 180-200 species of tropical evergreen trees in the family Clusiaceae. Its members are native to Madagascar, Eastern Africa, South and Southeast Asia (Pakistan east to Vietnam and Indonesia), the Pacific islands, the West Indies and Latin America. The common names, as well as commercial names, for these trees are teitai (in Kiribati),Feta'u (in Tonga), Bintangor tree (in Malaysia) and Poon tree (in India), Guanandi, Jacareuba or Santa Maria (in Latin America). For their resin, occasionally used medicinally, see tacamahac. For medicinal uses of leaves, oil from nuts and crost balsam see calanolide A, calanolide B, Jacareubin, Tamanu oil, Calophyllic acid.
These species grow in a wide number of habitats, from ridges in mountain forests to coastal swamps, lowland forest and even coral cays. They are large hardwoods, attaining 30 m in height and 0.8 m in diameter. It presents shiny and leathery leaves. The tree bark is grey or white and decorticates in large thin strips. The wood is light in weight, the heartwood pink-red, or almost brown, while the sapwood varies from species to species, often from yellow, brown (often with pink tints) to orange. Species occurring in Papua New Guinea are often buttressed.
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