General info
Brunfelsia is a genus of about 40 species. Linnaeus named the genus for early German herbalist Otto Brunfels (1488-1534).

Botany
Erect, smooth shrub growing to a height of 3-4 meters. Leaves are simple, green to yellowish-green, elliptic to obovate, with entire margins, 5 to 10 cm long, pointed at both ends, crowded on the ultimate twigs. Flowers are fragrant, terminal or axillary, solitary or in pairs, shortly stalked, with five broad petals. Calyx is green, ovoid, 6 mm long and 5-toothed. Corolla tube is about 4.5 cm long, slender and straw-colored; the limb is white to yellow, oblique and unequally 5-lobed, about 5 cm in diameter. The fruit is rounded, about 1.5 cm in diameter, with a yellow and somewhat fleshy pericarp and containing numerous seeds.

Distribution
Recently introduced to the Philippines.
Cultivated for ornamental purposes.

Parts used and propagation
Fruit
Propagated by stem cuttings.

Properties
Its fragrance emerges with the night and disappears with the dawn.

Uses
Folkloric
No recorded medicinal use in the Philippines.
In Martinique, fruit is astringent, used as a tonic; the syrup used for chronic diarrhea.
In French Guiana, sugary fruit made into an astrigent syrup for diarrhea

Studies
• Cytoxicity: In a Bangladesh study evaluating the cytoxicity activity 35 plant species by the brine shrimp lethality bioassay, the methanolic extract of Brunfesia americana showed moderate cytotoxicity with LC50 less than 10.00 ug.ml.

Availability
Ornamental cultivation.

Additional Sources and Suggested Readings
(1)
Medicinal Plants of the Guianas (Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana)
(2)
Preliminary Cytotoxicity Screening of Some Medicinal Plants of Bangladesh / Mohammad Rahman et al / Dhaka Univ. J. Pharm. Sci. 7(1): 47-52, 2008 (June)