Mahogany

Description

Swietenia macrophylla, commonly known as mahogany, Honduran mahogany, Honduras mahogany, orbig-leaf mahogany is a species of plant in the Meliaceae family. It is one of three species that yields genuine mahogany timber (Swietenia), the others being Swietenia mahagoni and Swietenia humilis. It is native to South America, Mexico and Central America, but naturalized in the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Hawaii, and cultivated in plantations and wind-breaks elsewhere. Mahogany wood is strong and is usually a source for furniture, musical instruments, ships, doors, coffins, decors. Mahogany is characterised by its large leaves (up to 45 cm long). The leaflets are even in number and are connected by a central midrib. The fruits are called "sky fruits" because of its upwards growth towards the sky. The fruits of mahogany can be measure to 40 cm in length, in a light grey to brown capsule. Each fruit capsule could contain 71 winged seeds. The seeds of mahogany can reach 7 to 12 cm long. Unlike mahogany sourced from its native locations, plantation mahogany grown in Asia is not restricted in trade. The mahogany timber grown in these Asian plantations is the major source of international trade in genuine mahogany today. The Asian countries which grow the majority of Swietenia macrophylla are India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Fiji, Philippines, Singapore, and some others, with India and Fiji being the major world suppliers. The tree is also planted in Laos PDR. It was scientifically studied for its various biological activities. A detailed mechanism of action of apoptotic inducing effect on HCT116 human cancer cell line was elucidated. Through solvent extraction and fractionation done on seeds of Swietenia macrophylla, the ethyl acetate fraction (SMEAF) was further examined for its neuroprotective activity and acute toxicity effects. Various purified compounds derived from Swietenia macrophylla were further examined and was revealed to possesses potent PPARγ binding activity which might capable of stimulating glucose uptake in muscle cells. The ethyl acetate fraction from the seeds of Swietenia macrophylla (SMEAF) was studied for anti-inflammatory properties using lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced BV-2 microglia. SMEAF significantly attenuated the LPS-induced production of nitric oxide (NO), inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS), cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2), tumour necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and interleukin-6 (IL-6).