Virola pavonis is a species of tree in the Myristicaceae

Myristicaceae

Myristicaceae is the botanical name for a family of flowering plants. The family has been recognised by most taxonomists; it is sometimes called the "nutmeg family", after its most famous member, Nutmeg ....

 family. It is found in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

 (Acre

Acre (state)

Acre is one of the 27 states of Brazil. It is situated in the southwest of the Northern Region, bordering Amazonas to the north, Rondônia to the east, Bolivia to the southeast and the Ucayali Region of Peru to the south and west. It occupies an area of 152,581.4 km2, being slightly smaller...

, Amazonas, Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso

Mato Grosso is one of the states of Brazil, the third largest in area, located in the western part of the country.Neighboring states are Rondônia, Amazonas, Pará, Tocantins, Goiás and Mato Grosso do Sul. It also borders Bolivia to the southwest...

, Pará

Pará

Pará is a state in the north of Brazil. It borders the Brazilian states of Amapá, Maranhão, Tocantins, Mato Grosso, Amazonas and Roraima. To the northwest it also borders Guyana and Suriname, and to the northeast it borders the Atlantic Ocean. The capital is Belém.Pará is the most populous state...

, Rondônia

Rondônia

Rondônia is a state in Brazil, located in the north-western part of the country. To the west is a short border with the state of Acre, to the north is the state of Amazonas, in the east is Mato Grosso, and in the south is Bolivia. Its capital is Porto Velho. The state was named after Candido Rondon...

), Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

, Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 and Venezuela

Venezuela

Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...

.
The tree grows to a height of about 15-30m tall.

Fruit & Flowers

The Virola pavonis tree bears a ellipsoidal fruit, 36-42 mm long and 30-34 mm in diameter.. The fruit appears to be nut like, with an outer shell with a reddish colored fruit inside. Before the fruit gets to this stage, it is a green unripe nut

Nut

Nut may refer to:* En dash or nut, traditionally half the width of an em dash* Nut , a piece of metal wedged into a rock* Nut , the large, usually oily seed of some plants...

 like in appearance. The Virola pavonis also is a flowing tree, having small reddish yellow flowering bud.

Leaves

The leaves of the Virola pavonis tree are in an alternate pattern, meaning the leaves spring one node at different levels of the stem. The veins of the leaf are pinnate

Pinnate

Pinnate is a term used to describe feather-like or multi-divided features arising from both sides of a common axis in plant or animal structures, and comes from the Latin word pinna meaning "feather", "wing", or "fin". A similar term is pectinate, which refers to a comb-like arrangement of parts...

. There is one main stem or midrib from which the other stems source from. The leaf is elliptically shaped with smooth margins (or edges). Also, the leaves of the Virola pavonis are stalked meaning the leaves have a petiole

Petiole (botany)

In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...

 thus meaning it is petiolated.

Occurrences

The Virola pavonis has the highest concentration as well as the most commonly recorded to be found in various areas of Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 as well as in the Amazon

Amazon River

The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...

.

Biological & Chemical Components

The Virola pavonis bears a fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

. The seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

s of this fruit contain various neolingnas.
According to an abstract written by Marcia O.M. Marquesa, Massayoshi Yoshidaa and Otto R. Gottlieba for the Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paul in March 1992,

"Virola pavonis was found to contain in the arils of its fruits 8.O.4′,7.O.3′-neolignans (eusiderins A, C and K) and a 8.O.4′-neolignan (of the β-propenylaryloxy-arylpropane type) and in the seed coats of its fruits 8.5′-neolignans (carinatone, carinatol) and 8.5′,7.O.4′-neolignans (dihydrocarinatin, carinatin). Some previous 13C NMR assignments for the latter four compounds are corrected."

The leaves of the Virola pavonis also bear some complex compounds such as DMT

DMT

DMT may refer to:In chemical substances:* Dimethyltryptamine, a psychedelic tryptamine* Dimethyl terephthalate, a polyester precursor* Desoxymethyltestosterone, a designer anabolic steroid...

as well as Pavonisol according to Pedro H Ferria and Lauro E.S Barataa;

"Pavonisol, a new C-1/C-2 oxygenated phenylpropanoid, together with the known eusiderin-E and an 8,4′-oxyneolignan, were isolated from Virola pavonis leaves. Their structures were established by spectroscopic methods and chemical transformations."

External Links

INBIO

Vierola Pavonis & Neolignas
Pavonisol