Research Team

Muntingia calabura

M. calabura, the sole species in the genus Muntingia, is a flowering plant native to southern Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and western South America south to Peru and Bolivia. Common names include (English) Jamaican cherry, Panama berry, Singapore cherry, Strawberry tree; (Spanish) bolaina yamanaza, cacaniqua, capulín blanco, nigua, niguito, memizo or memiso; (Indonesia) kersen; and (Filipino) aratilis, aratiles, manzanitas.


Several bioactive compounds have been isolated and identified from the leaves of M. calabura. Kaneda et al. (1991) and Su et al. (2003) have described the presence of various types of anti-tumor-bearing flavanones and flavones in the leaves of M. calabura. Recent studies have reported that the aqueous extract of M. calabura leaves possesses anti-inflammatory, antipyretic and antinociceptive activities (Zakaria et al. 2007) and the synergistic effect of the bioactive compounds, flavonoids, saponins, tannins and steroids, plays an important role in the activities.

Bauhinia purpurea