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''Lophira alata'', commonly known as azobé, ekki or the red ironwood tree, is a species of
Retrieved 2011-08-24
The timber, known as azobe, is strong and resistant making it useful for demanding constructions outdoors. The timber also has better electrical properties than other wood making it possible to use it in poles for
plant
Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...
in the family Ochnaceae
Ochnaceae is a Family (biology), family of flowering plants in the Order (biology), order Malpighiales.Vernon H. Heywood, Richard K. Brummitt, Ole Seberg, and Alastair Culham. ''Flowering Plant Families of the World''. Firefly Books: Ontario, Can ...
. It is found in Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...
, the Republic of the Congo
The Republic of the Congo, also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo), is a country located on the western coast of Central ...
, the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), also known as the DR Congo, Congo-Kinshasa, or simply the Congo (the last ambiguously also referring to the neighbouring Republic of the Congo), is a country in Central Africa. By land area, it is t ...
, Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...
, Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea, is a country on the west coast of Central Africa. It has an area of . Formerly the colony of Spanish Guinea, its post-independence name refers to its location both near the Equ ...
, Gabon
Gabon ( ; ), officially the Gabonese Republic (), is a country on the Atlantic coast of Central Africa, on the equator, bordered by Equatorial Guinea to the northwest, Cameroon to the north, the Republic of the Congo to the east and south, and ...
, Ghana
Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...
, Liberia
Liberia, officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast–Lib ...
, Nigeria
Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...
, Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone, officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...
, Sudan
Sudan, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...
, and Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
. Its natural habitat
In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ...
is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest
A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ...
s. It is threatened by habitat loss
Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss or habitat reduction) occurs when a natural habitat is no longer able to support its native species. The organisms once living there have either moved elsewhere, or are dead, leading to a decrease ...
.
The timber is extremely hard and used for railroad tie
A railroad tie, crosstie (American English), railway tie (Canadian English) or railway sleeper ( Australian and British English) is a rectangular support for the rails in railroad tracks. Generally laid perpendicular to the rails, ties trans ...
s, groyne
A groyne (in the U.S. groin) is a rigid aquatic structure built perpendicularly from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or a river bank, interrupting water flow and limiting the movement of sediment. It is usually made out of wood, concrete ...
s and bridge planking, as it is rot-resistant.
Description
The trunk of ''Lophira alata'' is usually straight, withoutbuttress root
Buttress roots, also known as plank roots or stilt roots, are large, wide roots on all sides of a shallowly rooted tree. Typically, they are found in nutrient-poor tropical forest soils that may not be very deep. They may prevent the tree from fa ...
s, but sometimes with a swollen base, and is usually clear of branches up to about . The bark is typically red-brown in colour, up to two centimetres thick, and has a bright yellow layer underneath. Young trees under four metres in height have greenish-grey bark, which becomes pink or light brown as the tree matures. Inside, the living sapwood is pale pink or whitish in colour, while the inner heartwood is dark red-brown to chocolate brown, with conspicuous white deposits of silica
Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , commonly found in nature as quartz. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is one of the most complex and abundant f ...
. The leaves of ''L. alata'' are up to long and are tough, fairly narrow and elongated, with a rounded or slightly indented tip, and tend to occur in clusters at the ends of the twigs.AzobéRetrieved 2011-08-24
Biology
''Lophira alata'' sheds all its leaves during a short period of one to two weeks, usually in December, and the re-growth of bright red young leaves, often simultaneously on all ''L. alata'' trees in an area, can set the canopy ablaze with colour. The flowers of ''L. alata'' are white, fairly large, strong-smelling, and grouped in loose, branched, terminal inflorescences. Flowering occurs in adult trees with trunks over 50 centimetres in diameter, and takes place from the time the new leaves appear. ''L. alata'' ismonoecious
Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system comparable with gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy, and contras ...
, meaning that male and female flowers are found on the same tree, and the flowers are insect-pollinated
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, for example bees, beetles or butterflies; bird ...
. Fruiting takes place between January and March, the fruits becoming mature around March to April, although fruits do not always appear every year. The fruits, which are wind-dispersed, contain a single, oil-rich seed in a conical capsule, which is brown when mature and is surrounded by two unequally-sized membranous ‘wings’, one up to six centimetres long and the other twice that size. Although ''L. alata'' needs full sunlight to grow, seedlings can persist for some time in the shady undergrowth and resume growth if breaks in the canopy
Canopy may refer to:
Plants
* Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests)
* Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes
Religion and ceremonies
* Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...
occur.
Uses
The timber, known as azobe, is strong and resistant making it useful for demanding constructions outdoors. The timber also has better electrical properties than other wood making it possible to use it in poles for electric fences
An electric fence is a barrier that uses electric shocks to deter humans and other animals from crossing a boundary. Most electric fences are used for agricultural purposes and other non-human animal control. They may also be used to protect hig ...
without separate isolators. The colour is reddish brown and the wood is abrasive, dulling tools rapidly.
Sniffing the bark is used as a traditional treatment for headache
A headache, also known as cephalalgia, is the symptom of pain in the face, head, or neck. It can occur as a migraine, tension-type headache, or cluster headache. There is an increased risk of Depression (mood), depression in those with severe ...
. The leaves of ''Lophira alata'' afforded two new biflavonoid Biflavonoids are a type of flavonoids with the general formula scheme (C6-C3-C6)2.
Examples
* Amentoflavone (bis-apigenin coupled at 8 and 3' positions)
* Lophirone L and lophirone M found in ''Lophira alata''
* Sulcatone A, a naturally occurr ...
s, lophirone L (1) and lophirone M (2), and the known luteolin
Luteolin is a flavone, a type of flavonoid, with a yellow crystalline appearance.
Luteolin is the main yellow dye from the '' Reseda luteola'' plant, used for dyeing since at least the first millennium B.C. Luteolin was first isolated in pure f ...
and lithospermoside. Both biflavonoids were obtained in small quantities, and their structures show some new and unusual biflavonoid diversity. Likewise, two chalcone
Chalcone is the organic compound C6H5C(O)CH=CHC6H5. It is an α,β-unsaturated ketone. A variety of important biological compounds are known collectively as chalcones or chalconoids. They are widely known bioactive substances, fluorescent materi ...
tetramer
A tetramer () (''tetra-'', "four" + '' -mer'', "parts") is an oligomer formed from four monomers or subunits. The associated property is called ''tetramery''. An example from inorganic chemistry is titanium methoxide with the empirical formula ...
s were isolated as inhibitors of Epstein–Barr virus
The Epstein–Barr virus (EBV), also known as human herpesvirus 4 (HHV-4), is one of the nine known Herpesviridae#Human herpesvirus types, human herpesvirus types in the Herpesviridae, herpes family, and is one of the most common viruses in ...
(EBV)-activation induced by a tumor promoter, teleocidin B-4, from ''Lophira alata''. One of them was identified as lophirachalcone. The other, named alatachalcone, was new, and the structure was determined by spectral properties. Both compounds also showed potent inhibitory activities against teleocidin B-4-induced inflammation on mouse ear. In an initiation-promotion experiment on mouse skin, alatachalcone (16 nmol) significantly inhibited tumor promotion caused by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA, 1.6 nmol).Biosci Biotechnol Biochem. 1992 May;56(5):769-72. Chalcone tetramers, lophirachalcone and alatachalcone, from ''Lophira alata'' as possible anti-tumor promoters. Murakami A, Tanaka S, Ohigashi H, Hirota M, Irie R, Takeda N, Tatematsu A, Koshimizu K. Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyoto University, Japan.
References
External links
* {{Taxonbar, from=Q135192 Ochnaceae Vulnerable plants Flora of Cameroon Flora of the Republic of the Congo Trees of the Democratic Republic of the Congo Flora of Ivory Coast Flora of Equatorial Guinea Flora of Gabon Flora of Ghana Flora of Liberia Flora of Nigeria Flora of Sierra Leone Flora of Sudan Flora of Uganda Taxonomy articles created by Polbot