DIVERSIDAD GENÉTICA Y MEJORAMIENTO DE PLANTAS MEDICINALES= Medicinal plants and improvement of medicinal herbs:

Algarrobo (Prosopis alba) is an important nitrogen-fixing tree adapted to the semiarid regions of northwestern Argentina. The tree provides fuelwood and dimensionally stable lumber for flooring and furniture; its pods that have a high sugar content are consumed by livestock and humans. P. alba has been one of the most heavily harvested species. This paper reports on the evaluation of a nine-year-old Prosopis alba progeny trial containing 57 half-sibling families of eight provenances in northwestern Argentina (of the 1,596 trees planted, 1,289 survived in 1999). Considering the multiple uses of P. alba, the selection criteria included: total biomass production (from basal diameter using regression equations), height, rate of pod production, and pod sensory characteristics. The family-narrow-sense-heritability was 0.487 for height. 0.548 for biomass production, and 0.244 for pod production. In 1998, 12 of the 1,289 trees were more than 4 m tall and had more than 1.75 kg pods per tree; and their pods had a sweet or very sweet non-astringent taste. Scions from these 12 trees were successfully grafted onto unselected P. alba rootstock. These are currently being used to produce rooted cuttings. The pod production, biomass, and height of the 12 clones ranged from 6.55 to 14.4, 1.57 to 13.5, and 1.29 to 1.70 times, the respective population means. The genetic gains of 13.5%, 77%, and 147% for height, biomass, and pod production respectively are greater than genetic gains for other tree species and are probably due to the great genetic variability in the local population and the lack of any prior genetic improvement program.

PARTE UTILIZADA= Used part: Hojas.

ACCION FARMACOLOGICA= Pharmacological action: Astringente.

COMPOSICIÓN QUÍMICA: The title compds. were isolated from fresh leaves collected before flowering. They were identified by various chem. tests and ir and uv spectra. The fruits of the tree have been reported to have medicinal and nutritional properties (Burkart, 1952).

ZONA GEOGRAFICA= Geografical zone: N y Centro de Argentina. 

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Distribución: Regiones Arica y Parinacota, Tarapaca, Antofagasta, Atacama.

Usos medicinales: Se usa como antiespasmodico para el tratamiento de los sintomas y signos de afecciones estomacales.

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Summary
Argentine mesquite (Prosopis alba - Leguminoseae) is a tree native to the dry lands of the Chaco region in Northern Argentina, Western Paraguay and South eastern Bolivia. Highly esteemed for its ornamental, nutritional, medicinal and ecological uses, its pods are widely considered edible. Due to the presence of neuroactive alkaloids in the aerial parts, the medicinal application of this plant has been rather limited. However, the high content of tannins in the bark could indicate that this species could be of interest in the future as a wound healing agent.

Parte utilizada:
Se utilizan los frutos y semillas, aunque en algunas ocasiones también la corteza y hojas.

Farmacodinamia - Acciones farmacológicas
Acción sobre el sistema nervioso central Otras acciones de interés: Los taninos de la corteza proporcionan su consabida acción astringente. La goma de algarrobo a través de la presencia de galactomananos presenta actividad antidiarreica, al igual que sus semillas trituradas. Los extractos del fruto mostraron in vitro actividad antioxidante moderada en diversos ensayos (Albrecht et al., 2010; 2011).
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Enfermedad o síntoma
Tos

Parte utilizada
Fruto

Forma de preparación
Arrope

Modo de administración
Vía oral

Origen
Tucumán, Argentina

1) TOURSARKISSIAN, Martín. Plantas medicinales de Argentina: sus nombres botánicos, vulgares, usos y distribución geográfica. Buenos Aires : Hemisferio Sur, 1980, p.74.

2) GRAZIANO, M. N.; FERRARO, G. E.; COUSSIO, J. D. . Alkaloids of Argentine medicinal plants. II. Isolation of tyramine, beta -phenethylamine, and tryptamine from Prosopis alba. Lloydia. 1971, vol.34, nº4, p.453-454.
 
3) FELKER, P., et al. Ewens, M. Genetic evaluation of Prosopis alba (algarrobo) in Argentina for cloning elite trees. Agroforestry Systems. 2001, vol.53, nº1, p.65-76.

4) ALONSO, Jorge ; DESMARCHELIER, Cristian. Plantas medicinales autóctonas de la Argentina : bases científicas para su aplicación en atención primaria de la salud.  Buenos Aires: L.O.L.A, 2005, p. 34.

5) Plantas silvestres comestibles y medicinales de Chile y otras partes del mundo/Cordero R., Sebastián; Abella A., Lucía; Galvez L. Francisca; Corporación chilena de la madera: Concepción, 2017 . -- 292 p.

6) Plantas medicinales autóctonas de la Argentina. Bases científicas para su aplicación en atención primaria de la salud / Jorge Alonso y Cristian Jorge Desmarchelier. - 1a ed. - Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires: Corpus Libros Médicos y Científicos, 2015.

7) Ceballos, Sergio J.; Perea Mario C./ Boletín Latinoamericano y del Caribe de Plantas Medicinales y Aromáticas, vol 13, no 1, 2014. - p. 47 - 68