Erythrina coralloides

Naked Coral Tree
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Fabales
Family:	Fabaceae
Genus:	Erythrina
Species:	E. coralloides
Binomial name
Erythrina coralloides D.C.

Erythrina coralloides with a hummingbird

Erythrina coralloides (Flame Coral Tree, Naked Coral Tree) is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae, that ranges from Arizona in the United States south to Oaxaca in Mexico.^[1]

Its white wood is used for making bungs and, especially in San Luis Potosí, figurines. The clusters of red and white flowers on the Naked Coral Tree make it an attractive ornamental. The flowers are also used as a food source.

The seeds are very poisonous, and contain erythroidine, a powerful paralyzant of the motor system, erythroresin, an emetic, coralin and erythric acid. The extract has been suggested as a substitute for curare. These seeds are elliptic, smooth, glossy, coral-red, with a salient longitudinal line on the back, and with a white hilum, surrounded with a black border. The analysis by Rio de la Loza showed these seeds to contain 13.35 solid and liquid fat, 0.32 resin soluble in ether, 13.47 resin soluble in alcohol, 1.61 erythrococalloidine, an alkaloid, 5.60 albumen, 0.83 gum, 1.55 sugar, 0.42 organic acid, 15.87 starch, 7.15 moisture and 39.15 inorganic matter.

References

1. ^ "Erythrina coralloides DC.". Germplasm Resources Information Network. United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/taxon.pl?403487. 

• Maisch, John M. Materia Medica of the New Mexican Pharmacopoeia - Part 5 American Journal of Pharmacy Volume 57 # 9, September, 1885.
• Remington, Joseph P.; Wood, Horatio C. et alii. (1918) The Dispensatory of the USA, 20th Edition.

External links

• Erythrina coralloides photos
• International Legume Database & Information Service: Erythrina coralloides