CHOCOLATE VINE FOR ANYONE?

COMMON NAME: Akebia, Chocolate Vine

LATIN NAME: Akebia Quinata

ORIGIN: East Asia

HABITAT: In the wild, Acabia Quinata grows in China, Japan and Korea, sometimes can be found in Australia and North America.

BOTANICAL INFORMATION:

Chocolate Vine (lat. Akebia Quinata) is a species of dicotyledonous plants belonging to the genus Akebia (lat. Akebia) of the Lardizabal family (lat. Lardizabalaceae).

Akebia Quinata is a climbing vine, which is able to reach up to 3 meters in height. The annual branches are finely grooved, smooth, shiny, pale purple in color. Leaves are long-leaved, palmate, dense, leathery, glabrous, dark green above and much lighter below.

Flowers on thin pedicels exude a pleasant aroma and have beautiful purplish brown color.

The fruits of Akebia Quinata are no more than 8 centimeters, ovate-oblong, fleshy, of purple-violet color, with a glossy coating, revealing along the abdominal suture. The seeds of the plant are numerous, small, black, arranged in several rows, immersed in the pulp of the fruit.

CHEMICAL COMPOSITION:

It is known that Akebia stems contain gederagenin, sucrose, potassium salts, betulin, akebosides, inositol, oleanolic acid, stigmasterol, daucosterol.