Ficus insipida

Ficus insipida is a common tropical tree in the fig genus of the family Moraceae growing in forest habitats along rivers. It ranges from Mexico to northern South America.^[2]

It was described in 1806 under the scientific name Ficus insipida (literally "insipid fig") by Carl Ludwig Willdenow, having studied the herbarium specimens collected in Caracas by the gardener Franz Bredemeyer  [de] in the 1780s during the Märter Expedition  [de]. Willdenow reports its fruit are tasteless.^[3] Incongruously, among the many species of figs to grow in the region, this species is in fact recognisable by its large and sweet figs (when ripe).^[4]

Two subspecies have been distinguished:

• Ficus insipida subsp. insipida Willd. - occurs in Mesoamerica, the Caribbean, Venezuela to Bolivia.^[5]
• Ficus insipida subsp. scabra C.C.Berg

This is a tree with buttress roots that ranges from 8–40 m (26–131 ft) tall.^[6]

Leaves vary shape from narrow to ellipse-shaped; they range from 5–25 cm (2.0–9.8 in) long and from 2–11 cm (0.79–4.33 in) wide.^[6]

The species occurs from Mexico south through Central America to Venezuela thence Bolivia, north from Venezuela to Trinidad and the Lesser Antilles, and east through the Guianas to northern Brazil.^[5] In both Costa Rica and Nicaragua it is found in lowlands along both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.^{[2] [5]}

Ficus insipida does not grow above 1,100m in Costa Rica, and is found down to sea level.^[5] It grows between 0–700m in altitude in Nicaragua, (exceptionally up to 1300m).^[2] The typical habitat of this species is lowland forests up to the coast, very humid, humid or dry, almost always along rivers.^{[2] [5]} It is found in thickly wooded small hills near the coast in Costa Rica.^[7]

It uses endozoochory to disperse its seeds. The figs are eaten by bats, howler, spider and capuchin monkeys in the Guianas.^[4] An especially important species to aid in dispersal in Costa Rica is possibly the large and common trout-like fish Brycon guatemalensis , of which the adults primarily feed upon the fallen leaves and figs of F. insipida. The seeds can survive the passage through the gut of the fish, although their viability is significantly diminished. Nonetheless, the fish may have a specific value for the fig as a dispersal agent: this fig species primarily and typically is found along rivers, and fish have the advantage of generally dispersing the seeds along rivers. Furthermore, fish are able to disperse upriver, and thus maintain upriver populations, whereas dispersal by floating the figs in water (hydrochory) alone is generally in a downriver direction (in most habitats).^[8]

The latex is sold in North and South American as an anthelmintic, marketed as 'doctor oje' (ojé in Brazil). The crude latex is toxic, fatal overdoses due to use as folk medicine occur reasonably often, but it remains a popular drug in certain regions.^{[9] [10] [11]} In mice, F. insipida latex was found to have only weak anthelmintic activity, and the mice developed haemorrhagic enteritis, thus the traditional medicine is not recommended.^[11]

The latex and other solutes can be removed from the sap, leaving purified ficin enzymes, a white powder that was first produced in 1930.^{[10] [11]} This product is likely safe.^[10] It was initially observed how intestinal nematodes dissolved in a ficin solution, which rose interest in the product at the time as an anthelmintic, although it was not widely adopted. Purified ficin is not actually 'pure', it is a mix of different enzymes and can be produced from many different species of Ficus. The main proteolytic enzyme found in ficin produced from F. insipida has officially been named ficain.^[11] Purified ficin has numerous medical and industrial uses, and its presence in the latex sap was thought to be the reason it might have an anthelmintic effect, although later research found it to be ineffective and potentially unhealthy for this purpose. It is used for cleaning in the production of stitching material for sutures, to prepare animal arteries before transplantation into humans,^[10] and for unmasking antigens in serology.^[11] It is similarly used for cleaning the animal intestines used as sausage or cheese-casings. It is used as an additive to make freeze-resistant beer, and has been added to certain formulations of meat tenderizers along with related protease-type enzymes.^[10]

The inner bark is used by the Moré people  [es] of Bolivia to produce a fibrous cloth used for clothing.^[12]

According to Schultes and Raffauf in their 1990 book The Healing Forest, the fruit of Ficus anthelmintica (an antiquated synonym of F. insipida) has been used by an unknown people somewhere in the northern Amazon of Brazil as an aphrodisiac and for what they categorise as a 'memory enhancer'.^[13]

It is quite common in Nicaragua,^[2] but it is conversely a rare tree in the Guianas.^[4]

• Missouri Botanical Garden [2008b]: Tropicos.org – Ficus insipida synonyms. Retrieved 2008-JUN-29.

• Ficus inspidia Trees, Shrubs, and Palms of Panama, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute Center for Tropical Forest Science.

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