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Astianthus is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the Bignoniaceae family. The sole species is Astianthus viminalis. It is known by the common names achuchil in Mexico and chilca in Guatemala and Honduras.
Astianthus is native to Mesoamerica, from southern Mexico to Nicaragua. It is a shrub, or if larger, a tree of varying height, occurring mostly along streambanks from sea level to 1,200 m (3,900 ft) in elevation. Its leaves are unusually long and slender, resembling those of a willow, possibly because it is a rheophyte.
The pentacyclic triterpenoids ursolic acid and oleanolic acid have been extracted from Astianthus. So have cinnamic acid, p-methoxycinnamic acid, and stigmasterol.
A chloroform-ethanol gradient elution High-performance liquid chromatography system was used to extract the iridoid glycosides campenoside and 5-hydroxycampenoside.
Where Astianthus approaches its largest size, useful lumber can be produced from it, but it is rarely harvested by lumberjacks.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Astianthus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
