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Mostuea is a small genus of shrubs, undershrubs and lianas in the Gelsemiaceae family, native to Africa and South America. It is rarely grown as an ornamental and is known mainly from the wild, where several species are alkaloid-rich and used in folk medicine and poisons.
Mostuea is one of only three genera of flowering plants belonging to the small family Gelsemiaceae (the other two being Gelsemium and Pteleocarpa). Mostuea and Gelsemium were formerly placed in the family Loganiaceae, while Pteleocarpa was placed variously in the families Icacinaceae, Cardiopteridaceae, Boraginaceae, and others, before the description of the Gelsemiaceae was altered formally to accommodate it in 2014. Mostuea is native to Africa and South America. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the roots of certain Mostuea species are used as ritual aphrodisiacs and entheogens in West Tropical Africa.
As might readily be expected of a close relative of the notoriously toxic genus Gelsemium, the genus Mostuea encompasses toxic, alkaloidal species with a variety of ethnobotanical applications as poisons and folk medicines.
Mostuea brunonis: the young leaves are eaten to treat stomach ailments. Preparations of the twigs and leaves are said to have analgesic effects upon body (muscular ?) pains and intestinal pain and to be beneficial in cases of colitis and dysentery. The root decoction or infusion is considered to be effective as an aphrodisiac, an anthelmintic, an analgesic and a treatment for colds, yellow fever and kidney disease. The roots are chewed to treat stomach pain, the crushed roots are applied topically to treat wounds and snake bites and the root bark is used as an ingredient in arrow poisons.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Mostuea by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
