Callicarpa americana L. - Lamiaceae - American beautyberry, **Amerikanische Schönbeere**

Shrub, native to North America, Central America and the Caribbean, cultivated as ornamental.

"American beautyberries produce large clusters of purple berries, which birds and deer eat, thus distributing the seeds." [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callicarpa_americana]] 

"The essential oil profile of Callicarpa americana was examined. Samples were collected from Lafayette county in north central Mississippi, and GC-MS data and retention indices were used to identify 67 oil components. Humulene epoxide II (13.9%), α-humulene (10.0%), 7-epi-α-eudesmol (9.4%), β-pinene (8.8%), and 1-octen-3-ol (8.5%) were the major components of the steam-distilled oil. The oil was selectively toxic toward the cyanobacterium Oscillatoria perornata compared to Oscillatoria agardhii and the green alga Selenastrum capricornutum, with complete growth inhibition at 28.5 μg/mL. The oil was only mildly phytotoxic and antifungal." \\
[Composition and some biological activities of the essential oil of Callicarpa americana (L.)., Tellez, M. R., Dayan, F. E., Schrader, K. K., Wedge, D. E., Duke, S. O., Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, Vol.48(7), 2000, 3008-3012]

"Decades ago, the grandfather of one of the authors (C.T.B.), residing in northeast Mississippi, used fresh crushed American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana L., Verbenaceae) leaves as a topical treatment for draft animals to repel flies and other biting insects. Specifically, the repellent was used as crushed leaves
on or off the stems and partially placed under the harness where the animal’s movement would continue to release the compound(s). Bioassay-guided fractionation of C. americana extracts using the yellow fever mosquito, Aedes aegypti, led to the isolation of alpha-humulene, humulene epoxide II, and intermedeol and a newly isolated terpenoid ([[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callicarpenal|callicarpenal]])... Experiment 7 showed that callicarpenal, intermedeol, and spathulenol were as effective as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS220|SS-220]] against A. stephensi and was the case with A. aegypti. Humulene epoxide II was not different from the control." \\
[Isolation and identification of mosquito bite deterrent terpenoids from leaves of American (Callicarpa americana) and Japanese (Callicarpa japonica) beautyberry., Cantrell, C. L., Klun, J. A., Bryson, C. T., Kobaisy, M., Duke, S. O., Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, Vol.53(15), 2005, 5948-5953]

"Callicarpa americana L. has a number of documented ethnobotanical uses in North America and the berries have been used occasionally as a food. In the early nineteenth century Rafinesque noted that C. americana leaves were used to treat dropsy (apparently by people of European heritage), and the fruits were considered edible, although somewhat acidic and astringent (hence “sourberry”, a colloquial name at the time). \\
In a traditional practice of the Alabama Indian tribe in North America, a decoction was prepared from the roots and branches of C. americana L. for external use in sweat baths as an antirheumatic, diaphoretic, and febrifuge (against malaria specifically), and the Choctaw tribe used decoctions of various C. americana plant parts (including roots and berries) to treat colic." \\
[Biologically active natural products of the genus Callicarpa., Jones, W. P., Kinghorn, A. D., Current bioactive compounds, Vol.4(1), 2008, 15] [[http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2760847/]]


{{callicarpa_americana.jpg?800}} \\
Callicarpa americana cultivated, National Botanic Garden, Washington, DC, USA, \\
 [[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:American_Beautyberry_-_Flickr_-_treegrow_(2).jpg|Wikimedia Commons]], Author: Katja Schulz 2009 [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en|CC BY-SA 2.0]]