tulbaghia+violacea

=Tulbaghia violacea - Wild Garlic (Wildeknoflok)= Flowering (Source Below) Vegetative (Source Below)

Tulbaghia violacea - wild garlic -is a monocotyledonous genus of herbaceous perennial bulbs native to Africa. They belong to the family Amaryllidaceae, subfamily Allioideae (Stevens, 2001).

According to J. Armitage, "Most species are native to the Eastern Cape of South Africa. As is common to members of the Allioideae, when their leaves are bruised they produce a distinct garlic smell. The flowers are borne in an umbel. Each flower has six narrow tepals. A characteristic of the genus is that there is a "corona" – a raised crown-like structure – at the centre of the flower. This may be small and scale-like or may be larger, somewhat like the trumpet of a small //Narcissus//" (Armitage, 2007).

Tullbaghia has an impressive collection of medicinal uses. Many of these uses can be attributed to specific compounds which could be isolated or achieved through direct use of the tulbaghia bulb material. Some of the potential uses include:

- Improving testicular fortitude and erectile function while the relieving symptoms of hypogonadism (Ebraheim, 2010).

- Antifungal and tuburculostatic properties of the compound Marismicin, which represent up to 3% of the dried bulbs mass (Kusterer, 2011).

- Used in South African traditional medicine for HIV/AIDS patients and in the treatment of gastrointestinal ailments, asthma, fever and tuberculosis alongside chest pain and heart disease (Ncube, 2011; Olorunnisola, 2011).

- Increasing glucose utilization to function as an antidiabetic (van Huyssteen, 2011).

These benefits alone represent a significant potential for research on Tulbaghia. Growing the species in the Aiken eco-machine would allow for reliable sourcing of the biological material for undergrad, graduate and faculty research.

Armitage, James (August 2007), "Time for //Tulbaghia//", //The Garden// 136 (8): 524–527
 * References**

Ebrahim, M., & Pool, E. J. (2010). The effect of Tulbaghia violacea extracts on testosterone secretion by testicular cell cultures. [Article]. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 132(1), 359-361. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2010.08.018

Kusterer, J., Fritsch, R. M., & Keusgen, M. (2011). Allium Species from Central and Southwest Asia Are Rich Sources of Marasmin. [Article]. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 59(15), 8289-8297. doi: 10.1021/jf201052u

Ncube, B., Ngunge, V. N. P., Finnie, J. F., & Van Staden, J. (2011). A comparative study of the antimicrobial and phytochemical properties between outdoor grown and micropropagated Tulbaghia violacea Harv. plants. [Article]. Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 134(3), 775-780. doi: 10.1016/j.jep.2011.01.039

Olorunnisola, O. S., Bradley, G., & Afolayan, A. J. (2011). Ethnobotanical information on plants used for the management of cardiovascular diseases in Nkonkobe Municipality, South Africa. [Article]. Journal of Medicinal Plants Research, 5(17), 4256-4260.

Stevens, P.F. (2001), //Angiosperm Phylogeny Website: Asparagales: Allioideae//

van Huyssteen, M., Milne, P. J., Campbell, E. E., & van de Venter, M. (2011). ANTIDIABETIC AND CYTOTOXICITY SCREENING OF FIVE MEDICINAL PLANTS USED BY TRADITIONAL AFRICAN HEALTH PRACTITIONERS IN THE NELSON MANDELA METROPOLE, SOUTH AFRICA. [Article]. African Journal of Traditional Complementary and Alternative Medicines, 8(2), 150-158.

Flowering: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1100&bih=666&tbm=isch&tbnid=XoGx2kzQMJySFM:&imgrefurl=http://www.calflora.net/southafrica/tulbaghia_violacea.html&docid=u3oI7ttuccoYMM&imgurl=http://www.calflora.net/southafrica/images2/tulbaghia_violacea.jpg&w=325&h=433&ei=JSk8T8CiCsPj0QGt1bTRCw&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=357&vpy=127&dur=615&hovh=259&hovw=194&tx=102&ty=142&sig=107222863632124919873&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=119&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0//
 * Photo Sources:**

//Vegetative:// //http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1100&bih=666&tbm=isch&tbnid=c64Qi1dBliijTM:&imgrefurl=http://eol.org/pages/1082913/entries/34649994/overview&docid=sO7yZomS8405lM&itg=1&imgurl=http://content63.eol.org/content/2009/07/24/04/96675_580_360.jpg&w=270&h=360&ei=JSk8T8CiCsPj0QGt1bTRCw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=483&sig=107222863632124919873&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=117&start=0&ndsp=17&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:0&tx=27&ty=85