Murraya

Murraya is a genus of flowering plants in the citrus family, Rutaceae. It is distributed in Asia, Australia, and the Pacific Islands.[2] The center of diversity is in southern China and Southeast Asia.[3]

Murraya
Murraya paniculata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Clade:	Angiosperms
Clade:	Eudicots
Clade:	Rosids
Order:	Sapindales
Family:	Rutaceae
Subfamily:	Aurantioideae
Tribe:	Clauseneae
Genus:	Murraya J.Koenig ex L.[1]
Species
See text
Synonyms[1]
Camunium Adans. Chalcas L. nom. illeg., nom. superfl. Murraea J.Koenig ex L. orth. var.

Description

Plants in the genus Murraya are shrubs or trees with pinnate arranged alternately, usually glandular, aromatic, and leathery to membranous in texture. The leaflets vary in shape and have smooth or toothed edges.[4] The inflorescence is a panicle, cyme, or small raceme of flowers growing at the ends of branches or in the leaf axils;[2] some flowers are solitary.[4] The fragrant flowers have 4 or 5 sepals and white petals and up to 10 straight stamens.[2][4] The fruit is a fleshy berry with pulp but without the juice vesicles present in some related fruits.[2] It is up to 1.3 centimeters long and orange, red, or black.[4]

Taxonomy

The genus Murraya was first formally described in 1771 by Carl Linnaeus in Mantissa Plantarum Altera from an unpublished description by Johann Gerhard König.[5][6] The genus name commemorates the 18th-century German-Swedish herbal doctor Johan Andreas Murray, a student of Linnaeus.[7]

This genus is in the subfamily Aurantioideae, which also includes genus Citrus. It is in the subtribe Clauseninae, which are known technically as the remote citroid fruit trees.[8][9]

Species list

The following is a list of species accepted by Plants of the World Online as at July 2020:[10]

• Murraya alata Drake – China Southeast, Hainan, Vietnam
• Murraya alternans Swingle – Myanmar
• Murraya caloxylon Ridl. – Malayasia, Thailand
• Murraya crenulata (Turcz.) Oliv. – Taiwan (Lan Yü) to Malesia and SW. Pacific
• Murraya cyclopensis Astuti & Rugayah – W. New Guinea
• Murraya elongata A.DC. ex Hook.f. – Myanmar
• Murraya euchrestifolia Hayata – China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan
• Murraya exotica L. – China South-Central, China Southeast, Hainan, Taiwan
• Murraya glabra (Guillaumin) Swingle – Vietnam
• Murraya glenieii Thwaites ex Oliv. – Sri Lanka
• Murraya heptaphylla Span. – Lesser Sunda Islands (Timor)
• Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng. – Indian Subcontinent to China (S. Yunnan, Guangdong) and Indo-China, S. Hainan
• Murraya kwangsiensis (C.C.Huang) C.C.Huang – China (SE. Yunnan, W. & SW. Guangxi)
• Murraya longifolia Blume – Java
• Murraya lucida (G.Forst.) Mabb. – Vanuatu
• Murraya microphylla (Merr. & Chun) Swingle – China (Guangdong), Hainan
• Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack – Tropical Asia to Vanuatu and Australia
• Murraya tetramera C.C.Huang – China (SE. Yunnan, W. Guangxi)
  • Murraya kwangsiensis var. macrophylla C.C.Huang – China (SW. Guangxi)

Uses

Murraya species are used in landscaping.[3] Some species can be grafted onto citrus rootstocks.[8] Species have been used in traditional medicine, with various parts of the plants used to treat fever, pain, and dysentery. M. paniculata has been used to induce labor.[3] It has been used in Cuba for painful inflammatory conditions.[11]

Curry tree (M. koenigii) in particular has a number of uses. It is cultivated in India and Sri Lanka. The aromatic foliage, powdered leaves, and essential oil are used in Sri Lankan Cuisine and Indian cuisine as a flavoring for curries and meat, fish, and egg dishes.

In Myanmar, thanaka is a traditional cosmetic face cream made from Murraya.

Chemistry

Compounds isolated from Murraya include many types of coumarins and alkaloids. The novel alkaloid yuehchukene was found in M. paniculata, and it has since been isolated from other Murraya. It is found in red-fruited species with larger petals, but not in black-fruited species with smaller petals. Some species also contain the carbazole girinimbine.[3]

M. koenigii has yielded a vast array of compounds, including carbazoles and carotenoids. The leaves alone have been found to contain such compounds as koenimbine, koenigine, koenine, koenidine, koenimbidine, murrayacine, murrayanine, murrayazoline, and murrayazolidine.

References

1. "Murraya". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
2. Murraya. Flora of China.
3. But, P. P., et al. (1986). A chemotaxonomic study of Murraya (Rutaceae) in China. Acta Phytotax. Sin 24(3), 186-92.
4. Murraya. FloraBase. Western Australian Herbarium.
5. "Murraya". APNI. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
6. von Linné, Carl (1771). Mantissa Plantarum Altera. Holmiæ: Impensis Direct. Laurentii Salvii. pp. 554–555. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
7. Missouri Botanical Garden
8. Swingle, W. T., rev. P. C. Reece. Chapter 3: The Botany of Citrus and its Wild Relatives. Archived 2011-07-19 at the Wayback Machine In: The Citrus Industry vol. 1. Webber, H. J. (ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. 1967.
9. Citrus Variety Collection. College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. University of California, Riverside.
10. "Murraya". Plants of the World Online. Retrieved 28 July 2020.
11. Casado Martín, C. M., et al. (2011). Acercamiento al género Murraya (Rutaceae) ya la especie Murraya paniculata (L.) Jack. Revista Cubana de Plantas Medicinales 16(4), 408-18. (Spanish)