Erythroxylum in Focus: An Interdisciplinary Review of an Overlooked Genus
1
Centro de Estudios sobre Seguridad y Drogas, Facultad de Economía, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota 111711, Colombia
2
Departamento Ciencias Biológicas, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de los Andes, Bogota 111711, Colombia
3
Jardín Botánico de Bogotá José Celestino Mutis, Bogota 111071, Colombia
4
CEMarin student, Escuela de Biología, Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia, Tunja 150003, Colombia
5
Department of Molecular Genetics, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK), 06466 Gatersleben, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Academic Editor: John C. D’Auria.
Molecules 2019, 24(20), 3788; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules24203788
Received: 2 September 2019 / Revised: 17 October 2019 / Accepted: 18 October 2019 / Published: 21 October 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Plant Alkaloid Research)
The genus Erythroxylum contains species used by indigenous people of South America long before the domestication of plants. Two species, E. coca and E. novogranatense, have been utilized for thousands of years specifically for their tropane alkaloid content. While abuse of the narcotic cocaine has impacted society on many levels, these species and their wild relatives contain untapped resources for the benefit of mankind in the form of foods, pharmaceuticals, phytotherapeutic products, and other high-value plant-derived metabolites. In this review, we describe the current state of knowledge of members within the genus and the recent advances in the realm of molecular biology and biochemistry.
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Keywords:
Erythroxylaceae; Erythroxylum coca; next generation sequencing; traditional medicine; bioprospecting; tropane
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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Restrepo, D.A.; Saenz, E.; Jara-Muñoz, O.A.; Calixto-Botía, I.F.; Rodríguez-Suárez, S.; Zuleta, P.; Chavez, B.G.; Sanchez, J.A.; D’Auria, J.C. Erythroxylum in Focus: An Interdisciplinary Review of an Overlooked Genus. Molecules 2019, 24, 3788.
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